Seperated by Evil, twin by Magic
by GoldMagic89 a.k.a Elmo
Summary: Harry is The-Boy-Who-Lived, but he also has a non-identical twin sister, Harriet, who is also The-Girl-Who-Lived, who went missing the night that Voldermort attacked the Potter's home. What will happen when her and Harry ... summary continued inside
1. Prologue

A/N: This is my second fan fiction, but my first for Harry Potter. My laptop had to go away and get repaired, resulting in a new hard drive being installed; meaning that I lost all my files and pictures and everything. I haven't been able to get back into the swing of rewriting the chapters for my other story, so I thought I would try writing a new one instead. I got this idea when I was at college doing my business plan (why we need to do a business plan in animal care I will never know); I had to write it down, and I haven't been able to get it out of my head since. Enough of the rambling; I hope people will like this story more than my other one.

Thank you to my two beta's court2010 and lovegoodpotter (I would also like to thank my new beta Lastnights regret)

I do not own anything Harry Potter related or anything that is otherwise publically recognizable.

Summary

Harry is The-Boy-Who-Lived, but he also has a non-identical twin sister, Harriet, who is also The-Girl-Who-Lived, who went missing the night that Voldemort attacked the Potter's home. What will happen when her and Harry both arrive at Hogwarts? Will their upbringing make them the best of friends or the worst of enemies? And what happened to Harriet all those years that she was missing.

Prologue

In the aftermath of the attack of Lord Voldemort, on the tragic Halloween night in Godric's Hollow, there amongst the ruins, were the cries of two infants—one boy and one girl. They were both siting side by side holding onto each other. The boy had a hold of his sister's sleeve, and he had a finger caught in the bracelet around her wrist, he wore an identical bracelet. The girl was holding onto her brother's top in a way of reassuring each other that they were not alone. They both sat in the collapsed mess of their large cot*. A big smoky mess filled the air around them instead of their brightly coloured room which they were used to. The bodies of their parents lay discarded; their father on the stairs, and their mother in the same room as them; both parents were dead.

There was a shuffling and crunching noise of someone walking through the rubble towards the cries, and a woman of around 28 years old appeared from around the crumbling wall; she wore a nurse's outfit as her Halloween costume, and her auburn hair was held back in a long ponytail. She looked around and spotted the two crying children; instantly she rushed over to them, careful to avoid their dead mother.

Quickly, she checked over them, other than a lightning bold shaped wound on opposite sides of their heads (the boy on the right side of his forehead, the girl on the left side of her forehead) they seemed alright. She never took the time to think about how odd it was for both infants to share the same shaped wound of identical sizes and depths.

The woman lifted the little girl from the crib first, untangling the little fists, knowing that she would be unable to carry both children at the same time over the dangerous rubble; she did not want to risk the chance of falling and not being able to catch herself without hurting the children. She decided to take the girl and come back for the boy as soon as she had given the girl to her husband, who was making his way over at that very moment; it would only be a minute that she was away from her brother. Taking a last look at the little boy, with a brief whisper promising she would be back she disappeared behind the wall again.

By the time the woman had turned the corner and her husband was insight, she gave him the little girl; she had been unaware that a man had appeared at the fallen house. The man was slender with dark hair, and he was dressed in a dark cloak; he rushed into the house as soon as he arrived, stopping first to check the pulse of the man lying on the stairs, when he found no pulse he cursed and ran up the stairs. After checking in a couple of rooms he arrived at what used to be the children's bedroom, seeing the woman on the floor her ran to her, and went through the same process as he had for the man on the stairs, with the same results he then stood and looked around the room.

He noticed the now silent little boy in his crib; he rushed over to the boy and checked him quickly for any major injuries, finding only the cut on his head, he gently picked the boy up hugging him to his chest, trying to stifle a sob of relief that at least one of the family of four had survived. Shifting the boys weight into one arm, the man started searching frantically for any sign of the little girl who he knew must have been there somewhere, after a while he stood silently listening for any breathing. Not a cry was heard; he was met with only silence.

Walking back out to the street, the man sat heavily on the curb, hugging the small child to him as if he was scared that the little boy was going to disappear. A second man appeared this man was the largest man you probably would ever see; he stood much taller than any other normal person, and was wider as well. He had a tangled beard and tangled dark hair, though despite his massive appearance, he did not seem scary, or intimidating quit the opposite actually. The giant of a man sat down next to the man and child and they seemed to be having a conversation.

By this time the woman had turned back and was just heading around the corner to return to the house. She ducked back, peering around the corner from her hiding place. From the angle in which the woman could see the two men from, she did not want to approach the house again. She feared that these people would notice her; these men could be the killers that just destroyed the house and killed the twin's parents!

She stood watching around the corning, the giant of a man jumped to his feet and bounded into the house and from the movements, she could see from him through the blown out windows, and from the collapsed walls she managed to determine that the man was searching, probably for the little girl who was now sleeping soundly in her husband's arms.

With a sigh of resignation and a whispered apology towards the boy still in the crib, the woman turned and headed back towards her husband, giving a quick explanation of why they were leaving without the second child. Before they both turned their backs on the ruins, the little boy and the two men walked away, never to look back on the house at the edge of the town, and to not talk about the house or the people who were there for many years to come.

A/N

Ok so I've decided to add a list of all of the British and Scottish words or phrases that have been used just in case anyone who is not British does not understand. I've had help from one of my beta's, court2010, who is not British, so we should get them all. This should be happening at the bottom of every chapter. So please let me know what you think and if it helps at all.

*American Annotations

*Cot, a crib.


	2. Chapter 1

Thanks to my beta's and two of my closest friends, court2010 and lovegoodpotter.

I do not own Harry Potter.

Chapter 2

The Quadrelli's had been trying desperately to have children for years now; they had almost given up all hope in ever being able to have a child of their own. They had tried IVF they had tried all the home methods and techniques, they had been to so many doctors multiple times, and then they just lost the hope of being able to have at least one child.

But that one Halloween night changed everything when Sarah Quadrelli was on her way to the shop at the other end of the town. She hoped the store would have more sweets for all of the kids out trick or treating, but when she came across the house outside of the town in ruins she lost all track of purchasing more Halloween sweets.

Once she heard the disturbing sound of children crying from inside of the wreck she cautiously approached the house. She determined that the place was not on fire and that there was no one else around. Entering the property, calling out as she went, she did not expect to find the dark haired man spread out on the stairs as if he had collapsed or fallen. As she rushed towards the fallen father she thought about how ironic it was that she had decided to dress as a nurse that Halloween instead of the zombie she had initially intended to go as.

Upon reaching the young man, _James_, she thought to herself, remembering a meeting in the supermarket with the family a few months back. She checked for a pulse finding non she looked for any other signs of life she could find—no luck.

She allowed herself a moment to get over the shock of finding a man who she had met so happy and healthy just months beforehand dead; she stumbled to her feet and continued her search for life all the while hearing the cry of the children.

Upon reaching the landing she quickly looked in a few rooms on her way to the room which the cries were coming from just to make sure that there was no one else more seriously injured. Upon entering the room, she spotted the red headed women staring vacantly up at the now exposed sky through what would have been the ceiling her eyes glassy and lifeless.

With a sigh of regret she maneuverer around the woman and checked over the children sitting side by side clutching into each other's clothing. The two children were twins, Harry and Harriet they had only turned one about a month before, if she remembered correctly.

They both had bright green eyes, however where Harry had obviously taken after his father in the looks department, with his shock of messy black hair, and his father's facial features from what you could tell at such a young age. Harriet took after her mother with her neat fiery red hair and what promised to be her mother's facial features etched onto her baby face. The green eyes that both children bore were from their mother as well, making little Harriet the carbon copy of her mother.

Finding that both children only had a cut on their heads she decided that they were healthy enough at the most the cut would need a paper stich just to hold it together as it healed. Lifting little Harriet up carefully detangling her brother's hand from the sleeve and bracelet both children wore, she wondered briefly if she would be able to manage both children at the same time not really wanting to leave Harry alone. By this time both children had stopped crying so she decided that he would be okay for a couple of minutes while she went to give Harriet to her husband.

Leaving the room she looked back upon little Harry, wondering what had happened here that night, and if it really would be safe leaving him alone. Deciding that she would rather take that risk than the risk of carrying both one year olds and potentially dropping one or tripping or slipping on a piece of debris and injuring not only the children but also herself, she continued through the door with Harriet.

Carefully picking her way through the debris and exiting the house at a brisk but steady pace she turned the corner and saw her husband, Jamie, approaching. She had to stop herself from running up to her husband instead just simply picking up the pace until she reached Jamie.

"What happened where did you get that child?" Jamie seeing his wife with a child basically ran up to Sarah to make sure that she was okay.

"I can't really explain now; I have to go and get her brother but their parents are dead." As she was saying this she hand little Harriet to a flabbergasted Jamie and ran back towards the house; however, upon turning the corner she saw the dark haired man holding onto little Harry as if his life depended on it.

She had never seen this man before, but by looking at his grief stricken face, and his hunched shoulders she could tell that he must of knew the Potter's well if not the children then at least the parents. Whilst she watched the largest man she had ever seen or even imagined in her life approached and sat down talking to the young man clutching the child; he seemed to be comforting him.

After a moment the larger man jumped to his feet and ran into the house looking around for something which she suspected was little Harriet, getting too scared she didn't want to approach the men and say that she had taken the little girl and left her brother on his own, for fear of being seen as an uncaring untrustworthy woman not capable of looking after a child.

As she watched, she saw the large man take Harry and walk back over to a motor bike.

"I'm sorry I never came back for you, Harry," she whispered before turning and heading back towards her husband. "Someone else has taken little Harry to look after they must have got there just after I had left with Harriet." She explained to her husband upon seeing his questioning gaze.

"It's alright; we'll go back and give them the little girl so that she can stay with her brother. Come on, Sarah." But at that moment they heard the roar of a motor bike.

Sarah hurried back to the corner and looked around just in time to hear a faint 'pop' and what appeared to be the smaller of the men disappearing into thin air. Sarah thinking that the events of the night were getting to her, she looked over at the giant of a man on the motor bike thinking that the other man may have joined him and Harry on the motor bike. Though when Sarah looked over she found herself shaking her head, rubbing her eyes and looking again. She couldn't believe what she was seeing, 'was that bike actually rising?' Sarah watched in amazement as she watched the larger than life man, holding the little boy securely, and flying a motorcycle.

Jamie arrived just behind Sarah in time to see shadows leaving the property, "I guess we have a little girl to clean up and put to bed for the time being. We'll discuss what to do once she is asleep." Jamie sympathetically soothed his wife once he realized that the retreating shadows must have been the people who had managed to retrieve Harry from the ruins. Turning, they both walked back towards their home at the other side of the village with a gently sleeping Harriet cradled in Jamie's arms.


	3. Chapter 2

Court2010 and Lovegoodpotter, you are both stars; thank you for beta'ing for me. and my new beta Lastnights Regret

I'm not genius enough to have the creativity or skill to own Harry Potter.

Chapter 3

Once Jamie and Sarah Quadrelli got back home a few minutes later, they ran a bath for the still sleeping Harriet, waking her up gently before lowering her into the bath. Leaving Jamie to clean the wriggling little girl, Sarah walked through to their bedroom and carefully removed a large box from underneath the bed. She picked out a pink box that took up half of the large box and leaving behind a similar box but blue coloured.

Sarah moved into their nursery which they had made and decorated a sunny yellow with bumblebee's along the walls. She had thought that they might never get the chance to use this room; she had decorated this room when she had become pregnant five years ago. Unfortunately, that had resulted in a miscarriage and since then they had not been able to conceive another child.

However, little Harriet Potter would allow them the chance to raise a child; Sarah felt hope bubble up inside of her, a hope she thought had been completely extinguished. Opening the pink box, Sarah looked at all of the little girl's cloths that she had accumulated over the years; the sizes ranging from new-born to five years. Even though for Harriet they would not be able to use the young baby clothes she had managed to find a little sleep suit which was woolly and warm with one half being purple and the other half being pink; she had had one similar as a child, so couldn't resist getting it when she saw it in the shop.

Taking a children's bath towel that had a mermaid on one side out of the box, she walked back through to the bathroom she left the mermaid towel and the outfit next to the sink as she gave a nod to her husband, alerting him to where the clothes were and she walked back through to the nursery where she walked over to a cupboard and pulled out some bedding and promptly got to making up the cot* with fresh bedding, and she added a little teddy bear which was on a shelf next to the cot. This teddy bear had been hers when she was a little girl; she still remembered the Christmas that she got her little Tula.

Walking back through to the bathroom where she saw her husband lifting a very tired looking Harriet out of the bath, she picked up the towel and caught the little girl in it as her husband lowered her back down. With a smile towards each other, they both set to work in drying the toddler and getting her ready for night.

With a squeaky clean toddler and two happy adults retreating back to the nursery bedroom they each gave the little girl a cuddle and a kiss on the forehead next to the new cut. They put the little Harriet into the cot and tucked her in giving her Tula the bear to hug, and left the room, only pausing to flick the nursery light off as they left. After their first bedtime with a small child they walked down to the kitchen and sat down to have a discussion.

"So what should be the first thing we do because obviously there won't be any point in alerting the authorities tonight, as they will either be closed or busy as it is Halloween." Began Jamie, he seemed to be happy to have been able to look after a small defenceless person after so long in trying.

"Honestly, I think you could be right we should first of all phone social services and see what they suggest. And ask if there would be any way in us taking guardianship of the child she should have a loving home." Replied a rather hopeful looking Sarah; she had been wanting a child for so long now.

Reaching over the table to take his wife's hand, Jamie agreed fully as he looked at her with a wide smile on his face. Before his smile fell as he recalled the circumstances which resulted in them having Harriet. "What about her dead parents?" he asked unsure how that particular topic should be handled.

Sarah gave an involuntary shiver as she recalled the blank staring eyes of the young couple, then she recalled the 2 men who seemed to have been comforting each other outside of the destroyed house. "I think that may be potentially taken care of, by the people who were there and took Harry. The best we can do is to give the police all the information we have and let them know where Harriet is and hope we can get her and her brother together… be that here with us or with other family or guardians." Sarah had to be honest with herself, as much as she would love to keep Harriet, she knew that it was not very likely that the twins parents would leave them without anyone lined up to take care of them in the case that something happened, leaving Harry and Harriet without their parents. Still a woman could hope couldn't she?

With their plans for the next day settled, they both set about ensuring that the house was child proof, just to make sure that the little girl who was soundly asleep in her cot upstairs would be safe to explore in the morning. Despite everything both adults had bright hopes for the following day and they were determined to make this chance they had been given work out.

After all they didn't need to even think about their jobs as Jamie had a steady job working from nine in the morning to six at night on Monday through Friday in the centre of the village, and Sarah had a part time weekend job helping out at the library for the village, which if needed she could easily give up to look after Harriet since Jamie earned more than enough to keep them all securely. And the library had a child friendly environment, and as long as she kept an eye on little Harriet she could take her along to the library with her.

Settling down for the night after watching a film* on TV they headed up to bed in their room which had a Jack and Jill door going through to Harriet's new room, which they left slightly ajar just in case she happened to wake up during the night. Both of the acting parents dreamed of having the little girl grow up into a fine young lady.

What they did not realise was that the next day they would find out that there were no official documents stating that the little girl had even been born, there was no records of any Potters and as far as the authorities was aware there shouldn't be a house at the site were Harriet was retrieved from, and the most curious thing happened to the house, the police investigated the house early the next morning and extracted a few objects, yet when they went back later that day there was nothing to be seen except an apparently empty plot of land. These resulted in a full investigation to ensure that no little girls around Harriet's age had been reported missing, and finally months after they had first taken Harriet into their home, Harriet was finally, legally in the guardianship of the Quadrelli's.

The only downfall being that they would not be able to adopt the bright little girl, as she had not been abandoned, yet there were no records of her even being born, so she kept her name as Harriet Lilly Potter in accordance to a large baby book which had been found in the ruined house on the other side of the town.

It was the only evidence they could salvage as to Harriet's true heritage, or to have any idea as to any of Harriet's background. What they did not realise that the pictures which the Quadrelli's looked at in the baby book were not still for Harriet as they were for them. And Harriet would never know that her muggle parents could not see the pictures moving, always taking for granted that some pictures moved whilst others did not. Harriet believing this was what everyone could see…

_*American Annotations_

_*Cot, a crib._

_*Film, a movie._


	4. Chapter 3

Thank you again court2010 and for being my beta's.

I don't own harry Potter or any other Harry Potter characters; they all belong to JKR.

Chapter 3

As the years went on, Harriet grew from a little baby found in a ruined home next to her brother into a bright happy little girl. Harriet didn't know she had a brother, and she didn't know that she had magic in her blood. What she did know was that she was loved and even though her parents were not her biological family, she knew that if they were able to, they would have legally adopted her at the first given chance.

Sometimes Harriet wondered about her biological family, her parents had always told her that she could ask them any questions she thought of, and they would tell her everything that they knew. The only question Harriet ever asked was why she had a different name from her family, and she asked that many years ago when she was still very small. Since then she had never asked any questions.

"Harriet time to get up for school!"

At these all too familiar words Harriet rolled over onto her back and slowly opened her eyes, to show the bright green orbs previously hidden by her eyelids. Stretching her arms above her head and arching her back off of her bed in a stretch, she pulled the covers off of herself and walked out of her room and along the corridor into the bathroom.

She turned the shower on to warm up. As she got ready to go into the shower she caught her reflection in the mirror as she went by. She was a very pretty girl at ten, her long red hair fell down her back in gentle waves, and her slightly round face showed the potential of a very beautiful young woman in the future. She had a slender frame and pale skin that showed signs of freckles from her being out in the sun all spring; all in all Harriet was a perfectly healthy ten year old girl.

After Harriet had been washed and dried she was back in her bedroom getting dressed. She heard her mum shout up again, "Harriet breakfast is ready hurry up you'll be late for your last day of school!"

At this Harriet gave her hair a quick brush and ran down the stairs to grab her breakfast. Upon entering the kitchen she saw her mum putting a couple of pieces of toast with Philadelphia spread* onto a plate next to her bowl of shredded wheat. Her mum had aged well in that past nine almost ten years. Her auburn hair had a couple of strands of grey hair, and she had some smile wrinkles next to her eyes, but other than those tell-tale signs she still looked as young as ever. "Morning sweetie, how did you sleep?"

Harriet walked over to her breakfast sitting on the table replying as she went, "Morning mum, I slept great; I had a dream that there was a little boy who had the same bracelet as me, and he was saying that he really wanted to meet me, and that we were going to be the best of friends. Though he never told me his name." Harriet finished describing her dream and started eating. Thinking no more of her dream, this however was not the case with her mum.

She looked onto her right wrist at the bracelet there. The bracelet was silver with a half disk on it as if it had been a whole disk once but now it appeared to have been cut down the middle. On one side of the half disk was her name, Harriet; along with her name was the name, Lily. The name was written underneath it in smaller letters, the whole of her name was written in a beautiful calligraphy. On the other side were the bold capital letters "POT." She had often wondered if this was a code or if it was a name like Potter cut in half or perhaps just a nickname she once had as a baby.

No matter what, Harriet, with the encouragement of her parents, she had never taken this bracelet off for a long amount of time. The longest she had ever gone without wearing the bracelet was one time when she had to take it to the jewellery shop to get more links added because the bracelet was getting too small for her. After feeling how lost she felt without the bracelet on her wrist, she was glad of her mum's suggestion the get extra links added, so that in the future, as she grew, she wouldn't have to take if off ever again.

Even though she had only had the bracelet off for one day, she felt an odd feeling of being completely lost without it, like a part of her was missing. Shaking her head slightly, she decided that she would finally ask some questions about what her life was like before her parents found her. All that she knew was what was in her baby book with the moving pictures. Looking up at her mum she started to ask a question, but her dad then walked into the room, so instead she changed her question to a greeting, "Morning dad, when are we leaving this morning?" at this her dad leaned down and kissed her on the top of the head before answering. Harriet would ask about her past later.

"Morning sweetie, I'm ready to go as soon as I've had breakfast if you're ready, thanks love," the last part was directed towards her mum who handed Jamie a cup of tea and a bowl of cereal. Smiling, Harriet finished her breakfast and washed out her bowl and left it on the draining board before leaving the room to grab her bag to make sure she had everything that she needed for the day in it.

Soon after this Harriet and her dad were in the car on their way towards her school; her dad always dropped her off at school on his way to work which was the next street along from her school. Harriet always enjoyed the car rides with her dad as they always talked about different things like their opinions on matters and anything that was recently bothering them in their day to day life. Harriet loved both of her parents, but she was a daddy's girl through and through.

The last day at school had been good for Harriet; she had got full marks* in one of her close reading tests, and she had talked to a number of people in the school. Even though Harriet was popular and liked by most people in the school, she went to, she didn't have anybody that she considered a close friend. She preferred to be on her own; she was a bit of a loner.

And after saying her goodbyes to everyone she was only left a little saddened at the thought of leaving the school and everyone and everything she had known since she was four behind. She wouldn't be going to the local secondary school. Harriet was going to one just outside of town that her parents thought would give her more opportunities than the local school.

That night when Harriet arrived home she approached her mum as she was cooking dinner. "Mum could I ask you about my bracelet?"

"Of course, sweetheart, what did you want to know?"

"Well for starters, when did I get it? And why is the disk halved and what does the POT mean?"

"Alright why don't you sit down I'm surprised you never asked earlier. Well you already had the bracelet when we found you. It's one of a pair. The POT is the first half of POTTER, and we decided that we should keep it on you until you decided to take it off yourself as we thought it was important that you keep a part of your heritage. We thought it would also be a way for you to find your brother if you ever wanted to."

At this last statement a thousand questions popped into Harriet's head. She had a brother? Who was he? Why didn't he live with her and her parents? Was he older or younger? What was his name? Would it be possible for her to find him? How close were they before they were split up? Did he still have his bracelet? Where was he? Who was raising him? The questions continued in that general direction, but instead of asking all of her questions she decided to condense them all into one question.

"Can you tell me everything that you know about him?"

* American Annotations

*Philadelphia spread, cream cheese

*Marks, grades


	5. Chapter 4

Thank you court2010 and Lovegoodpotter. - would like to add an extra thank you tomy new beta Lastnights Regret he has been amazing so far in helping me edit these chapters.

I do not own anything that is publically recognisable.

Chapter 5

Sarah was surprised at Harriet's question. Surely she had mentioned Harry to Harriet before. Then she thought well maybe she hadn't? She had thought of Harry plenty of times and had often spoken to her husband about how she wondered how he was, and what sort of boy he was growing up to be. Realising that Harriet was still waiting for an answer she shook herself out of her thoughts.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, darling; I hadn't realised we never mentioned Harry to you before. You see when I found you in that ruined house you were with your brother, Harry. He's you're twin. The only reason that you are here and he isn't is because... I wasn't able to carry two, fifteen month old babies through that much rubble and debris safely at the same time. I didn't want to either trip or risk dropping one of you. So I took you out of the house first, planning to give you to your dad and then go straight back in and get Harry as well. But in the minute or so that I was away from the house, two men had turned up and took Harry. I thought that they were maybe friends of your biological parents or other family members, so I returned to your dad after watching them for a few minutes to make sure that they were not going to hurt your brother. Then your dad and I were going to give you to the men after introducing ourselves, but by the time I had fetched you're dad and returned to the site, the men and your brother were gone. We still have no idea how they managed to vanish so quickly, there was no sight of them on the street or any of the nearby streets." Sarah gave her daughter an apologetic smile clearly showing the regret of not being able to keep both twins together.

All through this Harriet had been listening intently and taking mental notes on everything her mum had said. She watched as her mum took a breath and collected her thoughts before starting up again. "Harry has the other half of your bracelet. His had Harry with James in smaller letter underneath in te same fashion as yours, and on the back was "TER." You were such cute little babies. I had only seen you and Harry a few times when you're birth parents were out shopping with the both of you. You were inseparable. You both have exactly the same eyes, but whilst you are the image of your mum, Lily; Harry is the spitting image of your dad, James. I think he was the second of the two of you to be born; though don't quote me on that because I'm not sure. That's it. That's all I know about Harry I'm afraid. I often wonder how he is being raised and who is raising him. The authorities tried to find out who the men were, and where Harry was, but since there were no records that either of you had even existed, they couldn't trace you. Apparently James and Lily's record vanished at the age of eleven. There was nothing else that could be done."

Sarah watched her daughter as she digested all of the information that she had been told. In all honesty it wasn't that much information, though Harriet was still trying to process the fact that she had a brother, and more than just an ordinary brother, a twin brother. She just wished that she had a way of finding him; at least she had an idea of what Harry would look like.

A thought suddenly hit her; was Harry the little boy that was in the background of so many of her baby pictures in her baby book? It would make sense; Harry probably had a baby book, too, filled with pictures of him, possibly with her in the background. Maybe there was even one with both of them in all of the pictures. Harriet then looked back towards her mum and proceeded to ask her mum questions about her life before living with her parents until she had found out everything that her mum had known.

It was very little that her mum knew about her birth parents, but from her questioning she had managed to find out that her birth mum and dad were madly in love, and that everyone could tell by the small things, like the way they looked at each other, and how no matter how far apart they were if it was possible for them even to see each other they would constantly be glancing at the other. On the rare occasions, when one of them was without the other they would look a little edgy, and even a little lost without their partner, as if they couldn't function properly without their counterpart.

They had all lived in a cottage at the other end of the town, and that they had moved there whilst Lily was in late pregnancy. Harriet also learned that her birth parents had been killed on Halloween when their house was destroyed. The authorities said that a fire had started, which her mum disagreed with saying that it just didn't add up properly. There was also the point her mum made of the house vanishing during the night leaving only a bare plot of land in its place.

That night Harriet had a lot to think about, and she was worried that she would forget some of the information that she was just told, so she got out an empty notebook and wrote on the cover:

Investigation work

Biological family data – life before November 1981

For the rest of that night, Harriet sat at her desk writing everything she had found out in her investigation notepad. She was determined to find out everything that she could about her birth family and possibly even their friends. By the time Harriet was almost finished her mum came up to tell her to get ready for bed. Surprised Harriet looked at the time 23:45* she hadn't realised how late it was. No wonder she was starting to feel tired.

"Okay, mum, can I just finish this? I've only got a little left to write then I'm done."

"Just don't stay up too long." Her mother lectured. "What's that you're working on anyway?"

"Well I decided to find out as much as I can about my birth family and I don't want to forget anything, so I'm writing up an investigation book."

"That's a great idea; let me know if I can do anything to help you with it."

"Will do, night mum." With that her mum walked out the room after giving Harriet a kiss on the top of her head.

Within ten more minutes Harriet finished, and she had changes into her jammies and crawled into bed. As she snuggled down, her last thoughts before drifting off to sleep was, I'll find you Harry no matter how long it takes. And with that she drifted off to dream of her birth family and what they might have been like.

*American Annotations

23:45, 11:45 pm. In the UK military times are often used by everyone.


	6. Chapter 5

Thank you Court2010 and lovegoodpotter for putting up with my mistakes and making me realise how different words can be. And thank you to my newest beta Lastnnights regret

I do not own anything Harry potter related in this story.

I would like to ask what people think of this story so far? Do you think I should continue with it or leave it, as it's not very interesting.

Chapter 6

Harriet was found in her room the next day carefully sealing envelopes with the sellotape* so that she could send the invites to her birthday. It was mainly family she was inviting, and a few friends that lived nearby; however, she was slightly saddened by the thought that a part of her biological family wasn't there, Harry. And he was possibly one of the few people that she wanted there the most.

It was a week before her birthday, and she had finally got around to doing the invites, after being constantly nagged by her mum for weeks. As soon as she had the invites sorted her mum, dad and herself were all going to go out shopping to get food for the party. She didn't care for all of the unnecessary attention she got at birthdays. She would have been perfectly happy to receive a few gifts and cards then continue the day like any other day of the year, but her parents had different ideas; they insisted that every year she had a party and celebration of her being another year older. At least last year's party was fun, she thought to herself, as she remembered her tenth birthday, when they had gone on a caravan* holiday* to Balentry.* They had played in the river, had a barbeque dinner and jacket potatoes* for lunch. If only they could do the same this year.

"Harriet, post* is here, and there is a letter for you." It was her mum calling her. A letter? It's a bit early for any birthday cards; I wonder what it could be? Harriet sealed the last envelope put her Prit-stick* away that she had first tried using to seal the envelopes, picked up the pile of envelopes and walked down stairs to get her letter.

"Hi mum, here's the invites. Can I open my letter the now?" Harriet knew that they were leaving soon so she thought that she should ask just to make sure that she had time to read the letter.

"If you want to, but you'll need to take it with you in the car, otherwise we'll be late for your hairdresser's appointment." Oh, she had completely forgotten about the hairdressers. Though she didn't realise how much her fringe* had been in desperate need for a trim for a week or so now. Any longer and it would be poking her in the eye.

Ever since Harriet was little she insisted on having a fringe to help cover up her scar. It wasn't that she was ashamed of the scar; it's just that whenever the scar was on view like a windy day she felt as if people stared at her more. It made her feel very self-conscious. Deciding that it would be better to leave the letter till they came back, Harriet jumped into the car and fastened her seatbelt.

Once her mum had been to the corner to post the letters in the post box, her dad moved the gearstick* into neutral and started the car. The drive to the high street wasn't long, and before she knew it her dad was already in the car park* and was driving into the parking space. As soon as the engine was off, Harriet jumped out of the car and was waiting for her mum and dad at the wall that they had parked next to.

When they were all together they walked into the hairdressers just a couple of shops down the road. After Harriet's hair had been trimmed with layers and her fringe was a more suitable length they walked towards the food shops to get the weekly shop and some food for the party. They had a shopping trolley* full of all kinds of food from chips* and rolls for chip butties*, courgettes*, aubergines*, bangers*, potatoes, tattie scones*, black pudding*, square sausage*, pies, and a number of other foods for their weekly shop.

The variety of party food was massive they ended up with ice lollies*, lolly pop's, fairy cakes* mix, boiled sweets*, crisps*, for the fairy cakes, grated cheese and cold meat for sandwiches, some gob stoppers, toffee apples*, candy floss*, fizzy drinks*, mini sausage rolls*, and of course a large chocolate cake.

They paid for their purchases at the checkout; made a quick stop at the cash machine* before heading to another shop for some more shopping. After all it wouldn't do if there was an accident and there were no cotton buds* or cotton wool* to clean any injuries with, and plasters* were also a necessity whenever there were young children around. At the checkout the young woman there was chatting away to Sarah when the woman caught a glimpse of Harriet's scar as she shook as stray hair out of her face.

"Oh what a helpful girl you are to your mum, though I can't help wondering how such a good girl managed to get a scar on her face. I hope you don't mind me asking?" Harriet looked up at the woman to see that she had a look on her face as if she knew something, but wanted it confirmed. It was almost as if the woman was trying to hide her happiness at seeing the ten year old with an odd lightning bolt shaped scar on her forehead.

"Oh umm… Well… I've always had it." Was Harriet's truthful answer at the raised eyebrow of the cashier. Sarah handed over the notes* to pay for her purchases and took her fiver change and left the shop. She had not liked how that woman had looked at her daughter as if she knew who she was.

They made their way back to the car and put all of the bags in the boot*, before getting in and driving back home. It was on the drive back that Harriet remembered what she had waiting for her at home to be opened, her excitement growing with every passing second that they got closer to the house. It wasn't very often at all that she received post.

As soon as the hand break* was on not even waiting for the engine to be turned off Harriet had jumped out of the car onto the path* and ran towards the door to wait for it to be opened. As soon as her mum had walked up to the door laden with bags and unlocked it Harriet bolted inside and grabbed her letter and ran up to her room leaving her mum chuckling at her daughters haste to open the letter.

Harriet sat on her bed and looked at the letter, it was addressed to Harriet Lily Potter, and it even had her room: the front bedroom, in the address. Yet there was no stamp on the letter. Thinking to herself, Harriet thought it was weird why would someone put on her whole address and then hand deliver the letter; it just didn't make sense.

Cautiously, she turned the letter over and started to open it up carefully. She felt that she had to be extra careful as the envelope was not made of the normal paper but of a thick old fashioned kind of parchment. When she had taken out the letter inside it was made of the same kind of fancy parchment.

She read the letter carefully then laughed out loud. Now it all made perfect sense. This was why there was no stamp on the envelope, this was why her room had been added to the address, and this was why the letter and envelope was parchment and not paper. Someone was playing a joke on her. Honestly did they seriously think she would fall for it? Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry? Did they really think she was that gullible? Who would have an owl or a toad as a pet anyway? It was all just one ridiculous joke.

*Court2010's American Annotations

*Sellotape, scotch tape

*Caravan, camper

*Holiday, vacation

* Balentry, located around the southwest part of Scotland in Ayrshire

* Jacket potatoes, backed potatoes

*Post, mail

*Prit-stick, glue stick

*Fringe, bangs

*Gearstick, stick shifter

*Car park, parking lot, parking garage if indoors

*Trolley, shopping cart

*Fish fingers, fish sticks

*Toad in the hole, sausages baked in batter

*Chips, fries

*Chip butties, sandwich

*Courgettes, zucchinis

*Aubergine, eggplants

*Bangers, sausages

*Tattie scones, a scone made from potatoes

*Black pudding, a type of sausage made by cooking blood or dried blood with a filler until it is thick

*Square sausage, sausage patties

*Ice lollies, popsicles

*Fairy cakes, sponge cakes

*Boiled sweets, hard candies

*Crisps, chips

*Hundreds and thousands, colored sprinkles

*Icing sugar, powdered sugar

*Toffee apples, caramel apples

*Candy floss, cotton candy

* Fizzy drinks, pop, soda

*Biccies, cookies

*Mini sausage rolls, pigs in a blanket

*Cash machine, ATM

*Cotton buds, Q-Tips

*Cotton wool, cotton balls

*Plasters, Band-Aids

*Notes, money, bills

*Boot, trunk of car

*Hand break, parking break

*Foot path, walkway, sidewalk


	7. Chapter 7

The characters from Harry Potter are not mine, but Harriet, Jamie and Sarah are mine.

Thank you to court2010 and lovegoodpotter for being amazing betas and for getting me back on my chapters so fast.

I would like to dedicate this chapter to Teddy Tonks-Lupin for reviewing thank you so much.

**Chapter 7**

Upon going back downstairs, Harriet had all but forgotten about her letter. It was the only thing she could think about. What a silly joke to play on someone; after all it's not as if any sane person would take the letter seriously. "_Magic… Ha! What a ridiculous thing, as if magic really existed_." Harriet mused.

When her parents saw her entering the room they both turned and looked at her. Their queries about the letter's contents were clearly on their expressions. They both sat waiting for Harriet to share what she just read.

"Relax; it was just some silly practical joke that someone has played." She answered their unspoken questions, and she continued her route to the telly* to watch some cartoons or whatever else she found interesting that happened to be on at that time.

"What do you mean it was just a joke? Who sent you the letter?" asked Jamie, he never was one for discounting something on an assumption. He always wanted there to be evidence before he would accept an explanation.

"Apparently someone named Albus Dumbledore, but there was no stamp meaning the letter must have been hand posted, yet my whole address was on the letter. And it talked about a school for witches and wizards, with a booklist and everything. It must be a joke."

At this statement both of her parents looked at each other. A magic school? Could magic be real? It seemed that they were more open to the idea than their daughter was. Then again they had experienced quite a few unusual occurrences around Harriet particularly in the first year or so that they had her that they couldn't find any logical explanation for, of course Harriet wouldn't remember, she was too young.

"Do you mind if we have a look at the letter?"

Harriet wasn't expecting this request but she nodded her head and ran up the stairs anyway to get her letter for her parents. When she arrived back down she handed the letter to her parents and settled down to watch Zoo Babies on Animal Planet.

Unfolding the letter, Jamie and Sarah read the parchment. The letter informed them that Harriet had been accepted to a boarding school called Hogwarts, and that it was only for magical children. Glancing over at the content, Harriet quietly decided to go to the kitchen to discuss the letter between them.

"I wonder if this is the reason why odd things happened when we first got Harriet. She was so upset until she settled in. Maybe missing Harry caused her to perform magic. Do you think magic could be real?" Sarah asked looking at Jamie. Jamie took a moment and thought of all of this through. He thought about how they had once walked into Harriet's bedroom and they found all her teddies moving around the room as if they were alive. Then another time they had found Harriet talking to an adder* once which freaked them out. It figures that their daughter would be found playing with the only venomous creature in the UK.

However, their worries that the snake would cause her harm changed when they noticed how it seemed to try to protect her when the neighbour's overly boisterous dog kept trying to jump on her to get the little girl to play. It never bit the dog just hissed at it and reared up in front of the dog getting between the dog and Harriet, still they had been cautious to watch Harriet every second she was outside since then.

Then Jamie's thoughts travelled to a time long ago; Harriet had only been with them for a few days, and they walked into her room to see her staring at the wall next to her bed, where a realistic painting of Harry and her Lily were looking down at Harriet as if the two were standing next to the cot. Harry was being held on lily's hip; both were looking into the cot at Harriet. As they watched, a painted James appeared walk right in next to them as well. The paintings were so realistic that it looked as if they were actually there saying goodnight to the baby in the cot.

Shaking himself out of his thought, Jamie turned and looked his wife. Looking her in the eye he said, "You know what, I think this could be the real deal. I think Harriet could be a witch." At the nod of acknowledgement from Sarah who had obviously been thinking similar thought to him they both inspected the letter again for any clues as to how to contact the letter sender. Only finding it was from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and there was a statement saying that their reply was expected by owl post.

The couple came to the conclusion that the witches and wizards must have their own postal service. Not knowing what else to do, they wrote a letter put a first class stamp on it and wrote the name of the school. They letter had asked a few questions, asked if someone could come and explain things and stated that their daughter had thought of it as a prank. With hopes that the letter would get to where it was supposed to go by the muggle post, Jamie took a walk to the letterbox on the corner of their street and posted the letter.

Turning on his heel, he walked back home; he did not notice the short eared owl that just landed on the letterbox. He also didn't notice that letter he had just posted came back out of the slot and attached itself to the owl's leg. With the letter attached, the owl took off and flew off to deliver the letter. It wouldn't be long before the letter was read by the headmaster of Hogwarts.

When Jamie got back home Sarah looked up at him and motioned for him to enter the room. Once Jamie had entered the room Sarah took a quick look at Harriet and closed the door silently before whispering to her husband.

"I've been thinking. What do you say if we get Harriet a kitten for her birthday? After all she would be allowed to take it with her to Hogwarts if she does get to go to a magical school. And if not then it wouldn't look out of place for her to have a pet cat. We could get her a little moggie* from catsprotection." Sarah paused and looked at her husband waiting to see what his reaction would be. And breathing a sigh of relief when he smiled at her.

"I think that's a great idea. It might make her a little less homesick if she does go to a boarding school. She's old enough for a little responsibility as well." And with that decision made, they both set about making dinner and doing their normal evening routine.

_*American Annotations_

_Telly, TV_

_Adder comes from the Old English word nædre, 'serpent', from a Germanic root_

_Moggie, cat_


	8. Chapter 8

Great big massive thanks to court2010; hope all you're problems get sorted out, and thanks to lovegoodpotter.

I own nothing Harry Potter related.

**Chapter 8**

Three days had passed and nobody had dared to mention the letter from Hogwarts to Harriet as she would start ranting about the nerve of some people playing that kind of joke. Then she'll storm out of the room muttering about when she finds out that sent that letter or when she gets her hands on the guilty person.

It was only four days until Harriet's 11th birthday, and she was really looking forward to it; her mum and dad had been more secretive than normal, which caught Harriet's attention, but that made her all that more curious and excited. However, Harriet was assuming that it would be something relating to her birthday, so she thought that she would have to wait another four days to find out. Harriet did not realise that she would be finding out why her parents were being so secretive for a reason other than her birthday.

Harriet had not long gotten dressed she was just putting on her trainers* and her jumper* when there was a knock at the door.

"I'll get it." Shouted Harriet as she jumped up off of the stairs where she had been sitting to tie her shoe laces. She skipped the couple of paces to the door and opened it only to stop in her tracks. "Oh, this is going too far now. You can stop pretending now. Who roped you in to do this was it that boy two doors up? He's always attention seeking."

"Excuse me, but what exactly are you talking about?" Asked the person at the door, eyeing the girl up and down, taking in everything from the redness of her hair to the worn out trainers on her feet. Harriet could tell that the person was surprised by her looks only by the slight widening of their eyes. However, that soon vanished in a second as the face was schooled back into the no nonsense expression that was there previously. "Are your parents at home by any chance?" Asked the odd person at the door once she had come to the conclusion that Harriet was not going to answer her first question.

"Oh, right, yes, of course, right this way." Said Harriet trying and failing to control her blush as she realised how rude she must have appeared to the visitor. She instantly stepped back from the door, allowing her inside and closing the door behind her. She then proceeded to lead the way through the house into the kitchen where her parents were sitting having their morning drink. Harriet's dad was drinking his white coffee whilst Harriet's mum was sipping at her Tetley tea.

"Mum, dad there's someone here to talk to you." Harriet said and made to leave the room just as quickly as she had entered, but she was stopped.

"Actually, Harriet, it's not just us that she is here to talk to; it's you as well. Come and sit down." With a sigh Harriet moved over and sat beside her mum. When her mum saw Harriet go to open her mouth she interrupted her before Harriet even had a chance to say a single word.

"And no whining, Harriet. That won't get you anywhere." Sarah scolded her daughter, before turning back to the visitor still standing in the doorway. "Come in, have a seat... Oh, where are my manners would you like a drink or anything?"

"No, I'm perfectly alright, thank you." Said the woman before walking over to the table and sitting down at the opposite side from the family, this allowed her to be able to see them all. "Could I ask how you came about to have Harriet? She's not you're biological daughter is she?" Asked the woman who was clearly the type to get straight to the point and say what was on her mind.

"Err, no, she's technically our foster daughter; we found her and her brother in a ruined house when her parents were killed only I was unable to safely carry both of them at the same time out through the ruins, and when I came back for her brother these other men had him, so I went to get my husband, who had Harriet, so together we could approach the men, in case they were family, but then they were suddenly gone. The authorities didn't even have Harriet on their records or little Harry or even their parents." Jamie explained all in a rush with the occasional nod of agreement from Sarah. Harriet just sat there watching the whole exchange cautiously.

"I see, well that explains a lot then." Stated the woman she seemed to have relaxed a little upon hearing the story.

"Excuse me?" Harriet piped up. "But who are you exactly?"

"I never introduced myself did I? I'm professor McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts and Transfiguration professor as well." stated the newly named woman.

"Ok, Professor McGonagall, and why are you here? Who exactly put you up to this?" asked Harriet.

"Harriet!" Exclaimed Sarah, thoroughly embarrassed by her daughter's attitude and rudeness towards the woman sitting across from them.

"That's quite all right. We often have to convince children from muggle families that magic is real, though often it is the adults who take more persuading than the children." Professor McGonagall said to Sarah before turning to Harriet. "You see Harriet, Hogwarts is not actually a joke. It is real school in a secret location in the highlands of Scotland. When you get there you will learn how to control your magic, and you'll learn about a number of different magical topics, and after seven years you will leave Hogwarts, being a fully trained witch with a vast knowledge of magic and how to use it and to perform different tasks… As well as how to protect yourself." This last part was added as if it was said in an afterthought.

"But how do I know that magic is real and this isn't just some elaborate scheme to make me embarrass myself?" Harriet was getting a bit frustrated now this was going a bit too far for a joke now wasn't it? However, Harriet's train of thought stopped as the professor brought out a wooden stich that was thicker at one end and then got narrower towards the other end. She watched as the professor pointed the stick at the bowl of fruit sitting in the middle of the table and stated some words that were not familiar to Harriet. Then suddenly the bowl floated into the air! The fruit in the bowl came out of the bowl and started weaving amongst each other in the air as if they were being juggled.

"Wow, how are you doing that?" asked Harriet her green eyes wide with wonder.

"Magic," was professor McGonagall only reply.

**A/N ok I would really really like some more reviews and since it is my birthday tomorrow it would make a really amazing birthday present and I might even update tomorrow as well if I get some reviews. So please review.**

_*American Annotations_

_Trainers, tennis shoes, sneakers_

_Jumper, sweater_


	9. Chapter 9

Soooo… I don't own Harry Potter, and thank you to my two amazing beta's court2010 and lovegoodpotter.

_**Wow I am genuinely amazed and so happy there are now 15 favourite story's and 14 Story alerts for this story now and I now have 5 reviews this is amazing what a great birthday present. It almost makes up for my childhood being over now that the last Harry Potter film was released on my last day of being a teenager. Thank you so much. Enough from me now here's the next chapter.**_

**Chapter 9**

Harriet looked up at professor McGonagall with amazement and wonder in her eyes. Could it be that magic was real? Could she use magic?

"Do you believe me now that this isn't all a joke?" asked professor McGonagall with a tiny little smile.

"I… erm… Yes, yes, I believe you now." Spluttered Harriet still trying to process what she had just seen. "But I can't do that I've never done anything remotely like that before."

"I'm not surprised; you're not trained after all, and you don't know any spells yet." The professor stated simply. "However have you never done something that you couldn't explain when you were angry or scared?"

At this Harriet paused and thought. There had been times come to think of it; there was that time that she had got so angry at a boy on her school trip to the farm, he was saying pigs were stupid and only good for eating, when suddenly the pig in front of her turned toward the boy and started asking him some very complicated sounding maths questions.

Then there was that time when she had gone abseiling*, when she was just about to abseil down when the rope came undone from her harness because some plonker had not tied it properly. She had fallen down and right when she thought she was going the hit the ground a cuddly toy that she had got earlier jumped up as if alive and ran underneath her enlarging as it came closer and closer to her until she landed on it, breaking her fall and giving her a nice cushion. That cuddly toy was still in her room and was tied as favourite along with the teddy she had had since she was a baby.

As comprehension dawned on her face, Professor McGonagall gave a warm smile. Then Harriet turned to her parents. "You knew didn't you? You knew it wasn't a joke that's why you never agreed with me."

"Well, honey, it would have explained a lot, you see when we first started taking care of you must have been really scared and lonely because you did a lot of unexplainable things for the first month or two that you were here." Replied Sarah before Jamie spoke up.

"Then we noticed that once you started to get settled the unusual stuff started to become less frequent."

At this a sudden thought occurred to Harriet. If she could do magic then what about Harry? Could he do it as well? Maybe she would be able to find Harry at this school. She turned to professor McGonagall and decided just to ask.

"Excuse me, Professor McGonagall?" She asked a little more timid than she would have liked. At the questioning look that professor McGonagall gave her she continued. "Do you know anything about my life before my mum and dad got me?" professor McGonagall seemed not to have expected this question as she took a moment to collect herself before she started to talk.

"Yes I do. I taught your birth parents Lily and James. They were quite a pair. Lily had all the brains and James was the trouble maker at school, though they both grew up to be a very capable witch and wizard." The professor paused here then she asked Harriet, "What exactly is it that you want to know?"

"Well I was wondering if you know anything about my brother, Harry, and if you knew if he was going to go to Hogwarts as well?" Harriet eagerly asked leaning on the table more as she looked expectantly with hope filled eyes at the professor. Professor was taken aback by just how similar to Lily this little girl was.

"Well, Harry was taken to live with your muggle relative's Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon and their son, Dudley. I know that he too was sent a letter to go to Hogwarts though apparently he's not been getting to read his letters for some reason. We have another member of staff out to make sure Harry gets his letter and to see to it that he gets all of his things."

"Yes. I'll get to meet Harry at school. Oh, I wonder what he's like. Will he know about me? Will he still have his bracelet? Oh I can't wait to meet him…"

All the adults in the room watched as Harriet continued in this manner with a bemused look in all of their faces. Who would have thought that a little girl would be more interested in meeting her twin brother for the first time since they were babies than she was at learning that there was a whole secret world that she belonged to?

"Professor McGonagall, do you know where we can get all of Harriet's school supplies that are on the list?" Asked Jamie as he really didn't think that anywhere that he had ever been to or heard off would sell cauldrons or potion kits mentioned on the list.

"Of course, would it be convenient for you all to go today I could show you how to get to Diagon Alley and take you to get Harriet's money from her and Harry's vault at Gringots the wizarding bank."

"Oh, that's quite alright; we'll let Harry use the money from there and we'll pay for all of Harriet's school supplies. How is Harry by the way? I wish I had just waited around for another couple of minutes or was able to carry both children at the same time that way they would both still be together." Asked Sarah. She had constantly thought of the little boy with the jet black hair and green eyes that she had left alone whilst she had taken his sister away from him not to be reunited for ten years.

"I'm not sure about Harry to be perfectly honest with you. I never did warm to the idea of Harry staying with those muggles. Lily's sister didn't like magic as they were growing up. So I can imagine that she is the reason we are having trouble getting a hold of Harry." Replied professor McGonagall in a low voice not wanting Harriet to hear that her brother may not have had as good a childhood as she had had.

"What's a muggle?" Jamie asked.

"A non-magical person." Replied professor McGonagall.

"Oh, I do hope that Harry had a good childhood. I hope those relatives of his haven't treated him badly in any way." Sighed Sarah; she didn't know if she would be able to live with the guilt know that if she had managed to get to Harry before those men did then she could have given Harry the same wonderful childhood that Harriet had.

_American Annotations*_

Abseiling, sort of like rock climbing


	10. Chapter 10

I own nothing.

Thank you lovegoodpotter and court2010 for being my betas 

**Chapter 10**

Harriet stood looking up at the small grubby little pub that had a sign above the door that read 'The Leaky Cauldron.' Harriet noticed that they were the only four people that seemed to notice the pub; everyone else in the area seemed to only look at the book shop or the record shop on either side. They all seemed to completely missing the pub in-between.

Harriet found herself wondering what the muggles around them would think that they were looking at. Perhaps they thought they were looking at. Before entering Professor McGonagall seemed to have a second thought and motioned to a sit in chip shop* a couple of shops along.

"I think I should explain some more things before we enter the wizarding world. I don't want you to be unprepared." Stated the professor as they took their seats and gave their orders to the girl who had come over to take their orders.

"Harriet, you and Harry are famous in the wizarding world." Stated professor McGonagall. At this statement Harriet's parents eyes widened in surprise, and Sarah and Jamie gave small gasps of surprise.

"Why are we famous? I haven't done anything." Asked Harriet.

"Well you see the Halloween that you're parents died was a day to be celebrated by wizards all over the Britain because that was the day that an evil wizard who had done a lot of harm also was defeated." She looked and saw that Harriet and her parents were still paying attention, before continuing. "You see not all witches and wizards are good and one of them turned as bad. He collected a group of people who followed him called death eaters. These people would go around torturing and killing wizards and muggles alike. If you were not one of them you were against them."

She took a deep breath here and continued this time looking directly at Harriet. "The evil wizard, once he decided to kill someone, they stood no chance. That Halloween he found you're house and he personally entered and killed you're parents. Then he tried to kill you and you're brother. That is one of the greatest mysteries: how the two of you survived. Harry became known as The-Boy-Who-Lived. And you have been referred to as The-Girl-Who-Vanished. You see, You-Know-Who cast the curse to kill you both and that is why you have that scar. The whole mystery was added to when you went missing. Nobody knew if you were alive or dead."

Harriet was gobsmacked. She was famous. She turned and looked at both of her parents to find that they were just as surprised.

"How could you not find her, we approached the police, social services, and the local council. Heck, we even but an ad in the newspaper asking if anyone knew of Harriet's family or where her twin brother was." Asked a flabbergasted Sarah. Professor McGonagall shook her head sadly.

"You see the wizarding and muggle worlds work almost completely independently of each other. We have our own newspaper; we don't read the muggle news. We have our own authorities, and our own government. If our two governments had worked closer together them perhaps we could have found Harriet, you might have been able to adopt her as I'm assuming you were unable to do?" With the nod of agreement they all fell silent, thinking…

Then minutes later they were again standing outside the leaky cauldron this time though Harriet didn't feel the silent wonder and curious excitement she had the last time she stood in this spot. No this time she was nervous, and apprehensive as well as excited, and curious. She sure hoped that nobody recognised her. Lifting her hand she made sure that her fringe was covering her scar before taking a deep breath and following professor McGonagall into the pub with her parents at either side of her.

The pub was fairly busy. There were all sorts of people sitting around at the bar on stools, crowding round tables in corners and some just standing chatting holding a glass of some sort of drink. Walking though the pub nobody seemed to notice the visitors until they were passing the bar heading for a door at the back of the pub. The barman looked up spotted Professor McGonagall, and he nodded his head in a greeting before his eyes landed on the girl behind her. He paused with a stunned look on his face before exclaiming.

"Could it be? It has to be; she looks so much like her mother… Harriet?" Harriet automatically looked up to see who had called her name and immediately wished that she had kept on walking and ignored it because all of a sudden she was surrounded by people wanting to see her and shake her hand and ask her where she had been all of this time.

She was bustled away from her parents and the professor and one person even lifted her up so that she was up on the bar for everyone to see. Harriet was scared and felt a little like an animal in a zoo or safari park. Only in the zoo there was a barrier between them and the people who was looking at them. She was fully exposed and bright red from all the unwanted attention.

Professor McGonagall acted at once and strode though the crowd with her best no nonsense look in place; easily, she was able to part the crowd due to the fact that most of these people had at some point been her students and knew better than to not listen to her. Getting to the bar she held out her hand to help Harriet back onto the ground before turning to the crowd.

"What do you mean by this? This is unacceptable behaviour from a group of adults no less. You've scared the poor girl out of her wits. You should all be ashamed of yourselves." With this said the pair joined back up with Harriet's parents and they left the pub leaving a group of very embarrassed and ashamed looking witches and wizards behind.

_American Annotations*_

_*Chip shop, a store that mainly just sells just fries… I wish we had these in the US!_


	11. Chapter 11

Thank you, court and lovegoodpotter for being such patient betas.

I do not own harry potter

**Chapter 11**

They walked out of the back door of the Leaky Cauldron into an alley with a brick wall and not much else. Professor McGonagall walked up to the wall and tapped a few of the bricks, and the wall began to melt away before their eyes. Harriet was so amazed by the wall that at first she didn't see what was beyond the wall. With a gentle nudge from Professor McGonagall to go through she drew her attention from the wall and onto the streets beyond.

Harriet was flabbergasted she took her first step onto the cobbled street which had lots of twists and turns on it preventing Harriet from seeing all the way to the end. She really wished that she could turn her head all the way around and have as many eyes as Argus the Greek god who had eyes all over his body to take everything in.

There were shops that sold cauldrons, ones that sold owls, some with broomsticks, and places that had lots of jars that had all manners of things floating inside in different coloured liquids. There were robe shops, shops selling telescopes, book shops, and the wizard equivalent of stationary shops with quills and rolls of parchment. Shops with barrels outside of them filled with dragon dung and bats spleens. Shops that sold potions bottles and some that sold globes of the moon. There was an ice cream shop, and shops that sold strange and wonderful instruments that Harriet had no idea what they did or what they could possibly be used for. There were large shops, and small shops, busy shops and some that only had a few customers in them. Every kind of shop you could possibly wish for.

All the while Professor McGonagall was ushering Harriet and her parents along the street preventing them from stopping to look at things until they came to a large white building which was larger than all the other shops in the whole of Diagon Alley. It towered above them all. Above the door engrained into the marble was the word 'GRINGOTTS' which Harriet assumed was the name of the building.

"This is Gringotts the wizarding bank. Now I have your copy of the key for your vault Harriet and if your parents still want to pay for all of your school supplies then they can change the muggle money to wizard's money in here." Stated Professor McGonagall handing Harriet a small golden key. Harriet carefully attacked the little key to her key ring which held the key to the lock for her bike chain and her copy of the backdoor key for the house which her parents had given her in case of an emergency.

Then they all walked into the bank past a small figure with a pointy beard and a cleaver face. The creature also had very long fingers and feet and was wearing a scarlet and gold uniform. Upon reaching the creature it bowed to them through a set of bronze doors. Past the bronze doors was a pair of silver doors which had words engraved on them.

**Enter stranger, but take heed**

**Of what awaits the sin of greed,**

**For those who take, but do not earn,**

**Must pay most dearly in their turn,**

**So if you seek beneath our floors**

**A treasure that was never yours,**

**Theif, you have been warned, beware**

**Of finding more than treasure there.**

This Harriet thought was quite a cleaver poem and got the message through load and clear in her opinion. She knew that she didn't want to go and rob this bank anytime soon. Especially I the poem was telling the truth.

This time two of the creatures bowed them through the silver doors. On the other side of the silver doors the creatures were everywhere, about a hundred of them where sitting on high stools behind a long counter doing various different tasks and then there were more of them sowing people in and out of doors that were all around the large room. Not being able to hold her curiosity in any more Harriet finally turned to professor McGonagall.

"Professor McGonagall?" When the witch turned to face Harriet she continued. "I don't mean to sound rude, but what are these creatures?"

"These are goblins, very clever and proud. You would be crazy to steal from a place looked after by goblins, they don't have much patience for time wasters." Replied the professor, as she led them up to a goblin that had just seen to a couple.

Upon reaching the goblin she said, "Mr. and Mrs. Quadrelli would like to exchange muggle money for wizard's money." Then she took a step back and ushered Sarah and Jamie forward. Sarah took out her purse and took out some notes and handed them over to the goblin that looked at them then placed them under the counter and counted out a lot of gold coins, some silver ones and then some little bronze coins and placed them all in a little pouch. And handed it over to Sarah. Then they turned and left. Harriet was extremely surprised at how quick the whole process took.

Once outside professor McGonagall stopped and explained the coins to them. "The gold ones are called Galleons, the silver ones are Sickels and the bronze ones are called Knuts. There are seventeen Sickels to a Galleon and twenty-nine Knuts to a Sickel."

"Why do they make them odd numbers why don't they make them round number to make them up like in muggle money, one hundred pence to a pound, then they just have different coins for different amounts like fifty pence coin is the same as fifty pennies or a tenner note is the same as ten pound coins?" asked Harriet.

"I can honestly tell you that I don't know it was the goblins that thought up the amounts. Right have you got your letter from Hogwarts you'll need it for the list of all of your school supplies." Harriet was a little surprised at the sudden change of topic but didn't say anything. Her mum was rummaging through her bag and pulled out the Hogwarts letter. Having a quick look at the list behind the letter Professor McGonagall made the decision of what should be bought first and they headed off to get Madam Malkin's for all occasions robes to get Harriet her school uniform.


	12. Chapter 12

Thank you, Jess and Courtney for being such good betas.

Chapter 12

They walked into a shop called Madam Malkim's robes for all occasions so that Harriet could get her school uniform. Madam Malkin was a small, squat, cheerful looking witch. Who upon seeing Harriet hustled over to her and the adults.

"Good afternoon, Minerva. It's been a while. Come to escort a muggle born I see." With this she gave Harriet a warm smile before ushering them to the back of the shop. "We have another Hogwarts student being fitted as well." As they reached the back of the shop Harriet noticed a rather large family all with red hair and loads of freckles.

What appeared to be the oldest child was standing on a stool being fitted. The women who Harriet assumed to be the mum was fussing over a boy who looked to be about the same age as Harriet and a little girl was holding saying how she wanted to go to Hogwarts this year with Ron, whichever one of the boys Ron was.

There was also a pair of boys who looked to be twins who appeared to be a couple of years older, who were huddling in a corning and looking towards the mum every now and again as if making sure that she hadn't noticed or was listening in, and a man who Harriet assumed to be the dad of the family.

"Hello, Arthur, Molly," greeted Professor McGonagall. "How are you all today?" then she turned to the Quadrelli's and gave a quick introduction "These are the Weasley's"

"Oh, we are fine just out buying the school supplies for Ron's first year at Hogwarts and getting a gift for Percy I can't believe we have another prefect in the family; we are so proud." Replied the red headed woman who was Mrs. Weasley, Mr. Weasley was looking rather excited as he spotted Harriet and her parents.

"Hello, muggles are you? Fascinating, tell me what is the purpose of a raid-y-eater?" asked Mr. Weasley as he rushed forward offering his hand to Sarah and Jamie completely forgetting to ask for their names or introduce himself properly.

"A raid-y-eater?" Asked Jamie slightly confused though bemused at the wizard and his wife who was shooting disapproving looks his way for forgetting his manners in his excitement. Harriet watched the whole exchange with interest as she was guided onto the stool next to the Weasley boy so that she could get fitted.

"Yes, you know one of those white metal things on the walls in all of the muggle houses," nodded Mr. Weasley now practically bouncing on the spot in his excitement as if he had been waiting years to discover this bit of information.

"Oh, a radiator!" exclaimed Sarah finally understanding. "Do wizards not have them? They are used to heat up rooms and dry clothes on." Harriet turned her attention away from her parents and Mr. Weasley as they discussed the working and uses of a radiator and all the pros and cons of them.

Instead Harriet looked at the youngest boy who she noticed turned away as soon as she looked at him; she could see his ears turning a little pink. Harriet had to try not to laugh at this, she was just about to say hello to him when the boy on the stool next to her spoke instead.

"Hello I assume you're going into first year at Hogwarts? I'm Percy Weasley one of the Prefects for Gryffindor."

"Hi, I'm Harriet Potter." Replied Harriet a little shyly and slightly taken aback by the boy talking to her. Then she noticed how the boy was looking at her when she had told him her name, and she became more self-conscious and shy.

"_The_ Harriet Potter but you were missing nobody knew were you were; everybody thought you had died with your parents." Informed Percy with a look of bewilderment and wonder on his face. Harriet really hoped that this wasn't going to be how everyone in the wizarding world reacted upon hearing her name.

"I wasn't lost I grew up in Godrics Hollow, the same Village that my parents were staying in before they died." Stated Harriet feeling a little defensive.

"Really were you kidnapped then, are you're parents really Death Eaters pretending to be muggles?"

"What? I wasn't kidnapped my parents alerted social services about me and tried to find any other family I had," replied Harriet, who was starting to get annoyed with Percy. She didn't know what a Death Eater was, but she did know her parents were not that and she knew for a fact that her parents had tried to find any family that she had, she had looked at all the copies of documents they had saved over the years after finding out about her birth family from her mum. Before Harriet could say anything else to Percy he had turned to his mum who was talking to Professor McGonagall.

"Mum, this is the missing Harriet Potter; she's been found." Percy stated puffing his chest out as if it was him who had single headedly found the missing Potter and brought her to the wizarding world again. At his statement all the Wesleys looked startled and gazed at Harriet curiously for a moment before Mrs. Weasley huffed and started giving Percy into trouble.

"Well, I never, Percy, I would have thought that you would have known better than to go drawing attention to other people like that. Just look at how uncomfortable the poor girl is she is not some animal in a zoo for you to go looking at and drawing attention to. Now come on, if you're finished being fitted then we will go and pay for our stuff and leave these people in peace." Then Mrs. Weasley turned to Harriet "I'm sorry, about Percy, dear, I don't know what has got into him, and I hope he's not bothered you too much." Apologised Mrs. Weasley she was smiling kindly at Harriet then she gathered all her family together interrupting Mr. Weasley's questions about air fresheners and hurried them towards the door of the shop only stopping her to pay for the robes before leaving.

So that was a wizarding family; they seemed like just an ordinary family to Harriet, apart from Mr. Weasley's questions about normal everyday objects she wouldn't have thought there was any difference at all.

Once Harriet had been fitted for all of her school robes, hat and winter cloak her mum paid for her purchases and they left. Once they were out of the shop Harriet asked Professor McGonagall the question that had been niggling at her mind since Percy had introduced himself.

"Professor McGonagall? What's Gryffindor?"

"Gryffindor is one of the schools houses. There are four of them named after the founders of Hogwarts. Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. All students get sorted into one of the houses when they first arrive at Hogwarts in their first year."

"Who decides what house people get sorted into?" Harriet wanted to know as much as she could about Hogwarts before she went so that she wasn't completely clueless.

"Each student is sorted into the house that best suits their qualities, Gryffindors are bold and brave, Hufflepuffs are loyal and like justice, the Ravenclaws are knowledgeable and hardworking, and the Slytherins are cunning and ambitious." Replied the professor. "What should we get next?"

"Oh, can we get the books? I want to learn about the wizarding world before I go to Hogwarts." Harriet had been looking forward to getting her spell books, after all she did like to read and what a better way was there to find out about the world that she was going to become a part off. So off the headed to a bookshop called Flourish and Blotts.

Harriet could hardly believe her eyes. This was definitely her kind of shop. The shelves went as high as the ceiling in the large shop and all of them were stuffed full of books of all different sizes and colours. Professor McGonagall had managed to quickly find the books on Harriet's book list which Harriet noticed the authors names seemed to be along the same topic that they wrote about. Emeric Switch wrote _Transfiguration_ which was switching one thing into another thing. Phyllida Spore had written _One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi_, was a spore not a fungus seed or something? And why was a book on_ Defence Against The Dark Arts_ written by Quinton Trimble which sounded very close to tremble.

Harriet had managed to persuade her mum to let her have another book called, _Hogwarts: A History_. By saying that if it was a muggle school then they would have done research into the school before she went to the school so why not for a magical school.

Next they visited the Apothecary which smelled like rotten eggs and old cabbages, though Harriet was too interested in all of the weird things to notice the smell much. She was amazed at all of the ingredients that she was getting for her basic Potions ingredients whilst looking at all the things in jars of different coloured liquids and powders in barrels. It was all so amazing yet gross at the same time. They were selling beetles and eel eyes and dragon hearts after all. Then they were off to another shop to get a pewter cauldron, scales, phials and a telescope.

The last stop they made was at a shop called Olivanders. Harriet wondered why people would visit a shop were the owner clearly did not care about the appearance of the premises the lettering on the sign were gold but peeling off, the windows were all grubby and there was only one thing on display in the window, a wand on a fading purple cushion.

The inside was eerily quiet and the only furniture in the shop was a counter with a till and a spindly chair. The only evidence that the shop was open was that as they entered there was a bell that tinkled somewhere in the back. There were a lot of thin boxes all piles on top of each other against the walls right up to the ceiling. It was really quiet in here and Harriet was almost afraid to breathe in case she disturbed something.

Suddenly there was a very old looking man who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, his most defining feature was his wide grey eyes, and he surprised them all by his sudden appearance and a good afternoon. Harriet edged closer to her dad. When the man saw her and walked up to her Harriet was didn't want to appear rude or anything so she stopped edging towards her dads side and stood straighter

"The missing Potter. I knew you would come back to us for school. It seems like only yesterday that your parents were in here buying there first wands. You look the image of your mother. Her wand was particularly good for charm, ten and a quarter inches long made of willow and nice and swishy." Whilst he was talking the man was pulling down a pile of boxes and sitting them on the counter. " Your father on the other hand was chosen by an eleven inch mahogany wand. Good for transfiguration and quite powerful."

"Remember the wand chooses the wizard." Said the man who Harriet had now come to call in her mind Mr. Olivander, she had no idea if this was his name or not but considering that was the name of the shop it was the best she could come up with. Mr. Olivander handed Harriet a wand and urged her to give it a wave. However before she could wave it much he had snatched it out of her hand and quickly placed it back in its box and had given her another one.

This continues for quite a while and there was a massive pile of wands on the chare and Mr. Olivander seemed to be becoming more and more energetic and happy the more wands he handed to Harriet and rejected. Finally he seemed to have had an idea and pulled down two boxes.

"Try this one," he said handing the wand to Harriet. "Eleven inches, holly and phoenix tail feather. Unusual combination." He handed the wand to Harriet she felt a little tingle of warmth in her hand and she waved it around. He took the wand back off of her muttering, "Close but not quite there yet."

Then he handed her the other wand and she felt warmth go up her and peacefulness settle around her. She waved the wand and white sparks came flying out of the end. "Ahh, yes, that is your wand, no doubt about it." Exclaimed Mr Olivander before taking the wand back and starting to wrap it. He seemed to be thinking as he did this. "You are destined to do great things your wand is made from the same tree that the person who gave you that scar's came from. Yew, eleven inches, unicorn hair. You obviously have a pure heart otherwise the sparks would not have been white especially with the unicorn hair centre, one of the more pure animals known," stated Olivander. He handed Harriet her wand as Sarah paid the seven Galleons. And they walked out of the shop.


	13. Chapter 13

Thank you to my wonderfully fabulous betas Courtney and Jess :-D

I do not get any money from this and I do not own Harry Potter

**Chapter 13**

The trip back home was a quiet one as Harriet and her parents thought about everything that she had learned that day. Especially what Mr Olivander had told her. Was she really destined for greatness? Harriet was so engrossed in her thoughts that she barely noticed when she stepped inside her house, and it wasn't until her mum had given her all the bags and told her to take them up to her room that she managed to shake herself out of her thoughts, and took all of her things up to her room.

Over the next couple of days Harriet was fully absorbed in her school books. She couldn't believe all of the things that she read about Hogwarts. There were apparently secret passages, and a hundred and forty two staircases some of which moved and led to different places on different days, and some had trick steps. Also she read about how some of the doors were hidden behind paintings and curtains and some which appeared to be doors were actually walls.

The thing Harriet most looked forward to seeing was the Great Hall with its ceiling which was bewitched to look like the sky outside. Harriet didn't believe it would look exactly like the sky outside though she expected it to look like a painting of the outside sky that perhaps changed according to the weather or time of day. Harriet couldn't wait to see more moving portraits. Now she understood why the pictures in her baby book all moved t no other pictures moved.

The night before Harriet's eleventh birthday Harriet went to her bed happy and with her head full of the theories of how to make a forgetfulness potion and the magical properties of the fifty magical herbs she had read about and tried her best to memorise that day. She had set herself a task of learning fifty magical herbs and fungi a day as well as reading at least one chapter from each of her magical books a day as she really didn't want to be the bottom of the class because she was raised by non-magical parents.

The next morning Harriet woke up and it took her a few minutes to remember that it was her eleventh birthday that day and that she was a witch. She looked at the time on her digital clock on her bedside table. 07:48. Now was as good a time as any to get up she decided so she flung her covers off of her and jumped out of bed having to pause to let her sudden dizziness go away from her getting up so fast. With a clear head and a bounce in her step Harriet practically skipped downstairs for breakfast.

"Morning mum, morning dad." Sang Harriet cheerfully as she entered the kitchen.

"Morning, sweetie. Happy birthday here have some breakfast then we'll go through to the living room to get your presents and cards." Said Sarah as she placed a place of tattie scones*, bacon and fried egg in front of Harriet before going over and pouring a glass of apple juice out for her as well. Harriet quickly emptied her plate and downed her glass of juice before taking her dishes over to the sink to clean them, whilst her parents watched her with amusement. The joys of a child's birthday.

Harriet soon found herself sitting at the edge of the couch with a large pile of presents sitting in front of her. She couldn't believe her eyes she had so many presents.

"There are so many I don't know where to start!" exclaimed Harriet. Jamie just smiled at his daughter and hand her the birthday cards pile first, knowing that she always started with the cards. Harriet took them gratefully and carefully opened each one.

Giving exclamations of gratitude at each one and the occasional laugh if she opened up a novelty card or one with a good joke in it and carefully sitting the up on the window sill and the mantel piece once the living room windows were full. Any money Harriet had received she carefully put underneath the vase on the coffee table where it wouldn't blow away until she could put it in her purse. Then she moved onto the presents.

Harriet was particularly happy with all of her presents that year her parents seemed to have spent more on her than usual. She had got some new dvd's, a new set of jeans and three tops, a new canvas and easel for her to paint with, as well as a large box of tablet, a bum bag with a ladybird printed on it, a new stationary set which included some rubbers*, pencils, pens tipex*, cellotape*, and a ruler.

Then she had some magical gifts as well. Such as a rucksack that could fit a lot more in it than it should have without being full, a rock that when it was held on a cold day it would warm you're hands up, some books on the magical world such as _A Muggles Guide To The Wizarding World_, _Wizarding Celebrities Of Today, A Complete Guide To The Workings Of The Wizarding World, And Simple Spells For Young Witches And Wizards: A Guide To Simple Spells That Can Be Learned Before Going To Schoo_l. Harriet was so unbelievably happy with all of her gifts. Though she soon found out that this wasn't the last of her gifts.

After making sure that Harriet had opened up all of her gifts Jamie left the room and came back with a large box which he told Harriet she would only be allowed to open this box after the party before they left that evening. This of course got Harriet curious which no doubt was what her parents wanted. So the box was left in the corner of the living room next to the telly* and Harriet dashed up to her room with all of her new gifts and got ready for the party that would be starting at 12 o'clock.

12 o'clock came before Harriet could even think about it much. She was soon munching on fairy cakes* and trying not to get annoyed at her cousin Veronica for being so spoiled and self-centred. Honestly, who in their right mind went to someone else's birthday party and told the person that people should be giving her gifts for being at the party as well as Harriet?

All of a sudden Harriet felt her bracelet go warm. She paused in what she was doing and glanced down at her bracelet, it was glowing slightly. Barely enough for anyone to notice unless they were looking directly at it, but it was glowing none the less. Then Harriet spotted in the half disk that it had turned black and their seemed to be movement on it. Picking up the disk to inspect it closer Harriet found herself unable to move as images lashed through her mind.

A small boy with dark hair and glasses and the same green eyes as Harriet was sitting in a cupboard underneath the stairs, he appeared to sleep there as it has a mattress on the floor and clothes pilled neatly just next to the small mattress, the small boy was listing at the door of the cupboard before he quietly and cautiously opened the door and sneaked into the kitchen and took some food and scoffed it down fast before sneaking back into the cupboard to go to sleep.

Then the image changed to the same boy but he was older now. He was being yelled at by a large meaty man for somehow turning a teachers hair blue during class, then the man grabbed the boys arm and threw him into the cupboard and locked the door behind him.

The vision again changed to the boy who appeared to be about the same age as Harriet. He was at the zoo and was being pushed hard away from a snake vivarium that he was looking at by a fat boy who was about the same age. Then suddenly the glass to the vivarium was gone and the snake was leaving, Harriet heard it hissing and thank to the black haired boy before leaving the reptile house.

Now the vision showed the boy watching as the large man was burning letters in the fire Harriet caught the name on the letters as Mr. H. Potter. The image was now one of the boys lying on the bare floor with a thin blanket that seemed to be full of holes over him. He seemed to be in a very old not very safe looking shack and there was a storm brewing outside. The digital watch on the fat boys wrist changed to 00:00, and there was a bang at the door of the shack, the fat boy woke up, and the big man ran into the room holding a gun, then the door fell away from the doorframe altogether, and a giant man was standing there he came in picked up the door sat on the sofa causing the fat boy to run over to the other adults and the giant spoke to the thin boy, and if Harriet wasn't mistaken the giant had called the boy Harry. A birthday cake was given to Harry and then everything went blank. Harriet was back in the room with her party in full swing. Had she just seen what her twin's life was like?

Harriet felt a rage she had never in her life had reason to feel before, she snapped at her cousin.

"Oh, Veronica! Shut. Your. Gob." And a fairy cake came flying off of the table of its own accord and flew right into Veronica's mouth before her mouth closed and her lips changed into a zip and was zipped closed and a small padlock appeared locking her lips closed. Harriet turned and saw that the previously unlit candles on her birthday cake were lit and burning so fast that she could see them burn down to the little plastic holders and extinguish. Harriet left the room and into the back garden to take some time to calm down.

Harriet had been gone for around fifteen minutes. When she entered the room again it was empty of guests.

"Where is everyone? I ruined the party, didn't I?" Although she asked questions she spoke them like statements.

"Oh, of course not, honey." Sarah replied gently before explaining. "Some people from the Ministry of Magic arrived and fixed the accidental magic and modified their memories and everyone went home. Now I think it is time for you to open up you're last present now. "Said Sarah hoping to distract Harriet and it worked. Harriet looked over at the box in the corner before moving towards it and carefully removing the wrapping paper. Inside was a litter tray, pet grooming brush, some cat toys, cat food, and a little radiator bed. Harriet looked up at her parent's confusion clear on her face.

"Do you want to come and choose your new pet cat now?" asked Jamie with a sly smile on his face.

_American Annotations*_

*Tattie scones, scone made of potatoes

*Rubbers, erasers

*Pens tipex, white out

*Cellotape, scotch tape

*Telly, TV

*Fairy Cake, cup cake


	14. Chapter 14

Thank you to court2010 and lovegood potter for all of your support and corrections so far.

I do not own Harry Potter.

**Chapter 14**

When Harriet woke up on September the first it was to meowing. Rubbing her eyes Harriet sat up in bed and looked over to the door where her little ginger moggie kitten was pacing clearly wanting out. Harriet gave a sigh and climbed out of bed and walked over to the door and opened it, where the kitten instantly ran from the room and down the stairs. Harriet gave a little laugh at this and followed the kitten down the stairs and into the kitchen where she knew he would be sitting next to his bowl waiting for his food.

Every morning since her birthday this was the same routine that Harriet had followed. She picked up the food dish and empties a Whiskas kitten pouch into the dish and made sure there were still biscuits in the other dish. She then picked up the water bowl and rinsed it out and filled it with clean water.

Suddenly Harriet remembered the date and ran upstairs to get ready. She couldn't believe it had taken her so long to remember that today was the day that she went to Hogwarts. She really hoped that she got to meet Harry today. Picking up her best jeans that she had left out along with her favourite top of an owl Harriet quickly got dressed and brushed her hair into a neat plait down her back.

She scanned her room to make sure she had everything packed in her brand new Hogwarts trunk which they had gone back to Diagon Ally to get after realising that Harriet didn't have anything big enough for all of her things that she would need for the term. All that was left was to empty and clean the litter tray and pack it along with the three dishes and of course the kitten. Harriet smiled thinking about little Sammy. He was the smallest kitten in the shelter. Nobody wanted him because the notice had said that he was so underweight and that he had recently had worms which he was still on treatment for. Harriet couldn't resist him though and decided that since the treatment was only a precaution now and the course would be over in two weeks she decided she was willing to do the extra work and wanted to be the one to see the little kitten grow up strong and healthy.

She had called him Samuel, Sammy or Sam for short. How happy Harriet was that she had picked Sammy, he was such a character, always willing to play when she wanted to and always able to go and get up to mischief on his own when she was busy with chores or reading. Sammy no matter what he was doing always managed to stay in the same room as Harriet where she could keep an eye on him and he could always see her, which Harriet was pleased about, as this allowed her to bond with him and make sure that he wasn't getting ill or putting himself in any danger.

When Harriet next went down the stairs her parents were all ready and gave her a bowl of cereal to eat. "Harriet have you got all of your things packed for school?" asked Sarah as she packed Harriet a lunch box.

"Yes, mum, I managed to get my trunk into the hallway, but it was too heavy for me to get down the stairs." replied Harriet as she finished off her bowl, drinking the milk at left at the bottom.

"Don't worry about that; I'll get it in a moment and put it in the car." Stated Jamie as he got up from the table. Harriet nodded and washed out her dishes and went to brush her teeth and get her rucksack, so her mum could put in it the lunch, some food and a bottle of water for Sammy and some cans for Harriet, along with a book and some cards.

Soon they were off on the journey to Kings Cross Station. Upon arrival Harriet ran over to get a trolley whilst her dad got her trunk out of the car boot. With Harriet carrying her rucksack on her back and holing Sammy in his cat basket in one hand and Jamie pushing the luggage trolley they headed over to platforms 9 and 10. Sarah took out a piece of parchment that Professor McGonagall had given her and read through the instructions.

"Now all we have to do is lean onto or run at this ticket barrier and we should be on platform 9 ¾, and the train should be there waiting for you. Now its half ten now so we have plenty of time before the train leaves at eleven. On you go Harriet; why don't you run?" Instructed Sarah as she folded up the parchment and put it back in her bag.

Harriet took a deep breath and sprinted to the barrier she found herself holding her breath and closing her eyes just at the moment she would have crashed, but she didn't crash. Opening her eyes a second later she discovered that she was in fact on platform 9 ¾. She watched behind her and saw her parents appear from what was apparently from nowhere. It was at that moment that Harriet decided that she loved magic.

The platform was still fairly empty with only a few people around, Harriet found an empty compartment easily as they were so early and her dad helped her put her trunk and things in the compartment safely and they stood next to the train saying their goodbyes. Harriet wanted to be on the train before it got too busy.

"It seems like just yesterday that you were in a pram, and now look at you practically grown up and off to school on your own. Write to us if there isn't a phone that you can use." Sniffed Sarah her eyes glistening with tears of sadness and happiness together. Jamie patted Sarah on the arm but couldn't resist the opportunity to embarrass his daughter, especially since her face was already tinged a little pink.

"Yeah, I remember changing you're nappy, you were such a titchy little thing back then." At her dad's words Harriet's face changed from pink to a full out red. Parents could be so embarrassing.

"I'll make sure to write I'll tell you all about Hogwarts, and I have the camera you gave me I'll send you the film so you can see what it's like or if I can, I'll get it developed at school." Said Harriet overly enthusiastic in her attempt to prevent any more embarrassing comments from her parents. With that Harriet gave each of her parents a tight hug and got on the train and into the compartment with her things in it.

The platform was starting to get busy now and Harriet tried to spot Harry, but soon gave up as the crowd got so big that she couldn't even see her parents for any more than a minute or two as they waited near her window waiting to wave her off as the train left. Then she heard the whistle and all the students climbed onto the train and she saw her parents among all the other parents and siblings who were there to wave their children and brothers and sisters off. The doors slammed shut and the train started to move. Harriet waved madly at her mum and dad as they waved to her.

Suddenly the compartment door opened and Harriet turned around to see a girl with bushy brown hair and large front teeth.

"Hi, do you mind if I sit in here with you?" asked the girl.

"Sure, come in." replied Harriet as she got up to help the girl with her trunk.

"I'm Hermione Granger; I'll be in first year." Stated the girl as she held out her hand in way of an introduction.

"Hi, I'm Harriet Potter; looks like we'll be class mates then." Said Harriet taking the girls hand and shacking it, silently trying to hold in her laugh at the amazed look on the Hermione's face.

"_The_ Harriet Potter, the girl who went missing? I've read all about you. Where's Harry is he not your twin?" asked Hermione, who was quickly getting over her shock.

"Yeah, I've read all about me as well." Muttered Harriet, and it was true, Professor McGonagall had sent Harriet the wizarding books that mentioned her and Harry as a birthday present. "As for Harry I don't know we were separated the night that our parents were murdered, I didn't even know about him until recently. I expect he'll be on this train somewhere." Just then the compartment door opened and a round faced boy came looked in.

"Excuse me? Have any of you seen a toad? Trevor's got away from me again." Asked the boy he looked close to tears.

"No, sorry, would you like some help looking for him?" asked Harriet with Hermione nodding her head in agreement. The boy looked a little happier about this.

"Would you? That would be so nice of you." He looked hopefully at the two girls.

"Of course, I'm Hermione and this is Harriet." Hermione introduced the two of the leaving out their surnames which Harriet was happy about. They both stood up and walked to the compartment door.

"Thank you so much. I'm Neville." Neville looked happy and stood back to let the two girls out of the compartment.

"Come on, we'll go up to the back of the train and start there and work our way up to the driver then we can ask him when he thinks we will get to Hogwarts so we can be ready." Directed Hermione, she seemed to be a very logical thinker even if she sounded a little bossy, though Harriet didn't mind.

They moved to the end of the train and started taking it in turns knocking on the compartment doors asking if anyone had seen a tad and explaining that Neville had lost one. Harriet thought that this was a good way to get to know people. And see what the other students on the train were like.

A couple of compartment away from Harriet and Hermione's compartment Hermione knocked on a compartment door with Harriet and Neville standing behind her looking over each of her shoulders, when Harriet spotted Harry. He was in the compartment with the youngest Weasley boy. Hermione was the first to notice that Ron had his wand out and was instantly interested.

"Oh are you doing magic? Let's see then." And with that Hermione walked into the compartment pulling Harriet along with her. They both took a seat and Harriet threw an apologetic look at the boys. Ron looked taken aback.

"Err- alright" he cleared his throat before starting, "Sunshine, daises, butter mellow, turn this stupid fat rat yellow." Then Ron waved his wand around, however nothing happened. The rat was still fast asleep on Ron's lap. Personally, Harriet wasn't surprised after all that 'spell' sounded more like a poem and all the spells she had read about and practiced so far all seemed to be Latin or have part of a Latin word in them. Though she would never point this out to the boy. Hermione on the other hand didn't seem to care all that much about not hurting the boys feeling.

"Are you sure that's a real spell?" said Hermione. "Well it's not very good is it? I've tried a few simple spells just for practice and thieve all worked for me. Nobody in my family is magical at all. I've learnt all our set of books off by heart; of course, I just hope it will be enough." Harriet felt that Hermione was getting a bit carried away now and perhaps was being a little rude; as it were clear by the look on the boys faces that neither of them had learned their books off by heart. Harriet had read all of her books and had learned most of the magical herbs and fungi and done and learned some of the spells at the beginning of each of her textbooks but that was about it.

"This is Hermione Granger, I'm Harriet Potter." Harriet decided that distraction was the best method to cut Hermione off, before she hurt anyone's feelings. She could see Harry start and look at her curiously.

"I'm Ron Weasley," Ron murmured still looking stunned that Hermione had memorised all of her books. Hermione turned to look at Harry waiting for his answer; Harry didn't take his eyes off of Harriet.

"Harry Potter." Spoke Harry.

"Are you really? I know all about you of course – I got a few extra books for background reading, and you and Harriet are in _Modern Magical History_ and _The Rise And Fall Of The Dark Arts_, and _Great Wizarding Events Of The Twentieth Century._"

"Am I? I mean are we?" asked Harry finally taking his eyes off of Harriet to look at Hermione. He looked dazed at this information.

"Goodness, didn't you know I would have found out everything if it was me; I know Harriet did that. Do either of you know what house you'll be in? Anyway we better be off to find Neville's toad, I expect we'll be arriving soon." Rambled Hermione, she never even gave the boys a chance to answer her question about the houses.

Hermione pulled Harriet back out of the compartment sliding the door shut on the way past. Harriet had hardly had a chance to talk, but at least now Harry knew about her if he didn't already which by the look on his face, he probably didn't.


	15. Chapter 15

Thank you to my betas court2010 and lovegoodpotter.

I do not own Harry Potter.

**Chapter 15**

Hermione, Harriet and Neville continued searching the rest of the train for Trevor the toad with no luck at all. They had stopped in one the conductor's offices and found out that it wouldn't be long until they were at Hogwarts. On the way back to their compartment, after saying goodbye to Neville and wishing him luck in finding his toad, the girls heard some commotion coming from the compartment that Harry and Ron were in. Hurrying over to see what was happening, they arrived just in time to see a blond haired boy (who had been rude when Harriet had asked if he had seen the toad) and his to big friends hurrying out of the compartment. Harriet looked at Hermione who looked as surprised as she was.

"What has been going on?" Asked Hermione as she entered Ron wasn't listening he had walked over to the window and had bent down to lift something up. It took a second for Harriet to realise that it was a rat that Ron was holding by the tail.

"I think he's been knocked out," Ron said to Harry, completely ignoring Hermione's question, before he looked closer at Scabbers. "No – I don't believe it – he's gone back to sleep." Harriet had to turn around in order to stop herself from laughing, when Harriet had turned back around the boys seemed to be talking about Harry's meeting with someone called Malfoy. Then Ron seemed to notice the girls. "Can we help you with something?"

"You'd better hurry up and put you're robes on, we've just been up front to the driver and he says that we're nearly there. You haven't been fighting have you? You'll be in trouble before we even get there!"

"Scabbers has been fighting, not us, and she's not in her robes yet either, why don't you chew her ear off about it instead of ours." Replied Ron pointing at Harriet. At this Harriet blushed.

"I was just on my way back to change when we heard the commotion." Explained Harriet.

"Would you mind leaving while we changed?" said Ron sarcastically. Harriet looked at Harry one last time before disappearing to go and change into her robes, Hermione must have waited a bit longer to say something as it wasn't until Harriet was pulling the robes over her head that Hermione arrived into the compartment. Harriet smoothed out her robed made sure everything was packed in her trunk or her bag before sitting to talk to Hermione. But just as she was sitting down a voice echoed all around the train.

"We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes time. Please leave your luggage on the train; it will be taken to the school separately."

Harriet started to get nervous and so apparently was Hermione as she started talking about the first topic not directly linked to the school that she could think of.

"Did you see Harry's reaction to finding out about you? He must not have known about you before." Hermione giggled. Harriet herself couldn't help but laugh either. She had worried that Harry wouldn't know about her. She wondered if he still had the other half of the bracelet.

Harriet didn't have much more of a chance to dwell on this as the train pulled up to a stop. Harriet looked outside of her window but couldn't see anything because it was too dark. Hermione pulled her arm to make her stand up and they both hurried to the door and joined the crowed of students leaving the train.

Once they had finally managed to get onto the platform after being bumped and nudged along the corridor they found themselves on a tiny platform. Harriet and Hermione edged closer to each other and hugged themselves partly out of nerves and partly to try and shield off the cold evening air. Harriet saw a lamp appear and bob along above everyone's heads. Harriet was just pointing the lamp out to Hermione when the person holding the lamp called out.

"Firs-years! Firs-years over here!"

Harriet was then able to see the person holding the lamp. He was the biggest man Harriet had ever seen before. He had loads of tangled brown hair and beard framing his face and was a head and shoulders taller than even the tallest of students. He wore a thick moleskin coat. Harriet noticed him pause for a second to talk to someone in the crowd before he started calling again as Harriet and Hermione headed over to him. "C'mon, follow me – any more firs-years? Mind yer step, now! Firs-years follow me!"

All of the first years followed the man's massive strides some jogging to try and keep up. It didn't help that they were walking along a steep and narrow path with walls of darkness either side which Harriet assumed were trees. All of the first years were silent nobody was in the mood to talk much they were all too nervous. The only sound any of the first years made was Neville sniffling every now and again, because he still hadn't found his toad. Suddenly the man called out giving Harriet a fright.

"Yeh'll get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec." Yelled the man over his shoulder "jus' round this bend ere."

As they turned the bend, those at the front let out an _ohh_ of surprise and wonder as the path opened up suddenly into a large loch* on a mountain on the other side was a beautiful castle with countless numbers of sparkling windows with the dark starry sky as a backdrop making it even more magical looking adding to the effect which all the turrets and towers had already made.

"No more'n four to a boat!" Shouted out the man as he pointed out a load of boats to them. Harriet pulled away here attention from the castle and looked down towards the boats. They were rowing boats but with one major difference. They didn't have any paddles. Hermione seeing that harry and Ron were getting into boat grabbed Harriet's and pulled her over towards their boat.

"Hermione are you sure this is a good idea." Harriet hissed to her eyeing up Ron she was sure that they were the sort of people who would either click or hate each other and she was not wanting them to be together too much in such a short space of time that they ended up hating each other.

"He's your twin do you not want to get to know him better? Come on." Hissed Hermione back pushing Harriet ahead of her so that she had to get on the boat first and was sitting across from harry.

"Everyone in?" Shouted the man who was sitting on his own in a boat. "Right then – FORWARD!" All of the boats moved off the shore all at once and glided soundlessly across the loch, there was hardly even a wave to disturb the silence. Harriet kept on peeking at Harry trying to make it look like she was watching the castle like everyone else as it grew nearer. She was pleased to see that he kept on glancing over at her as well. At least now she knew that he was as curious about her as she was about him.

"Heads down!" Came the shout from the man who was in the lead and everyone ducked their heads as the first boats reached a cliff with a curtain of ivy covering a cave entrance. The little boats carried them through the ivy and along a dark tunnel until they arrived at an underground harbour. They all climbed out of the boats and onto the rocks and stones. Harried wondered how far under the school they were.

"Oy, you there! Is this your toad?" Asked the large man who had been checking all of the boats as people were getting out of them.

"Trevor!" Cried Neville rushing over and holding his hands out for the man to place the toad in them. He looked really happy to have his toad back, and Harriet was genuinely happy that he had Trevor back; she didn't know what she would do if Sam ever went missing. They continued up a passageway in the rock using the light from the lamp the man was carrying as a guide and at last came out on some damp grass right next to the castle.

They followed the man up a large set of stone steps and crowded around a huge, oak door. Which Harriet assumed was the main entrance of the building.

"Everyone ere? You there still got yer toad?" Neville blushed a little and nodded holding Trevor closer to his chest. The man raised his massive fist and knocked on the door three times. The door instantly swung open, showing Professor McGonagall.

"The firs-years, Professor McGonagall." Said the man.

"Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here." Said Professor McGonagall as she pulled the door open wide. The entrance hall was massive easily the biggest room Harriet had ever seen. It was large enough for a normal family house to fit inside and still have room to spare. There were stone walled which had flaming torches on them to light the room, and Harriet couldn't make out any detail on the ceiling as it was so high up. Ahead of Harriet there was a large marble staircase leading up to another floor, and Harriet supposed more floors above that one as well.

Professor McGonagall lead the first years across the stone floor past some large doors were the mumble of lots of voices could be heard coming from and into a room further up the hall. They all entered the room standing close together in the small room. Everyone was nervous and looked around at the room they were all in, before Professor McGonagall called their attention to her.

"Welcome to Hogwarts," started professor McGonagall. "The start of term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall you will all need to be sorted into your houses. The sorting ceremony is very important because while you are here your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory and spend free time in your house common room."

"The four houses are, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each house had its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn you house points, while any rule-breaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points will win the house cup, a great honour. I hope each of you will become a credit to whichever house becomes yours. The sorting ceremony will begin in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school, I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting." At this professor McGonagall glanced at Neville whose cloak was done up lopsided and at Ron who had dirt on his nose. Harriet noticed that Harry was trying to flatten his hair. Harriet smoothed down her robes and quickly brushed her fingers through her hair. "I shall return when we are ready for you." Said professor McGonagall, "Please wait quietly" and with that she turned and left the chamber.

A few people started mumbling comments to their friends though most people stayed silent. Harriet heard harry ask Ron something but was just a little too far away to make out what he said or Ron's reply fully though she did here. Ron mention something about a test and hurting a lot. Harriet was getting really nervous now. It really didn't help that Harriet was standing right next to Hermione who was reciting what Harriet thought to be every spell in the textbooks and a few that she had never heard of before. Now Harriet really wished that she had thought to memorise all of her textbooks just like Hermione had. Harriet just stood alternating from wringing her hands and playing with here sleeves whilst she bit her lip trying not to bounce in her nervousness.

There was suddenly screams from several people behind Harriet which gave her a fright and she quickly spun around to see what it was that people were screaming at. She let put a gasp of surprise at what she saw, and Harriet wasn't the only one either. Floating above them were about twenty ghosts who had just come through a solid wall at the back of the room. They were arguing amongst themselves and not paying any attention to the first years below them as they glided above their heads across the room.

"Forgive and forget, I say, we ought to give him a second chance –"

"My dear Friar, haven't we given Peeves all the chances he deserves? He gives us all a bad name and you know, he's not really even a ghost – I say, what are you all doing here?" The ghost that had been talking has finally noticed the first years. He was wearing a ruff and some tights. Naturally nobody answer dater all how often was it that a ghost asked you a question.

"New students!" said the Fat Friar, smiling at them all. "About to be sorted I suppose?" A couple of people including Hermione nodded their heads. "Hope to see you in Hufflepuff! My old house you know." Said the Fat Friar.

"Move along now," said a sharp voice causing Harriet to spin around towards the door. "The sorting ceremony's about to start." It was professor McGonagall who had returned to take them to be sorted. Harriet looked up in time to see the ghosts disappear through the opposite wall.

"Now, form a line, and follow me." Professor McGonagall instructed the first years as she turned and headed back out of the door. Harriet got being Hermione and noticed that a boy who had brown hair was behind her, Harry was further back in the line with Ron behind him. They followed Professor McGonagall out of the room and followed her back across the hall and through a pair of double doors into the Great Hall.

_Loch, lake_


	16. Chapter 16

I would like to thank my beta's lovegood potter and court2010 I really couldn't ask for better friends. I would especially like give a special thanks to court2010 for all the support given to me these past few days I don't know how I would of managed without having you there to talk to and just knowing that you're just a txt/tweet away really help when I was too upset to think about anything other than Summer. I hope she rests in peace.

Awe, Vicki! That's so sweet of you! You're the sweetest friend, and I feel so fortunate to of been able to meet you since we are so many thousands of miles apart. I think of this as one of the most real friendships I've ever had because I've never had to be someone I'm not with you. I can't even imagine my life without you in it. I've learned so much from you, and you've always been there for me. Xoxo Courtney

**Chapter 16**

The first thought Harriet had when she walked through those doors to the Great Hall was, _I must be dreaming. _The room was so beautiful and magical that she was at a loss for words. The ceiling alone was something that Harriet couldn't take her eyes off of; one thing was for sure _Hogwarts: A History_ had not done it justice in its description. The ceiling was high and if it wasn't for Harriet knowing that it was an enchantment she wouldn't have thought there wasn't one at all. It looked exactly like the night sky outside with some wisps of clouds and the stars.

Besides the ceiling, the hall was exceptionally large there were four large, long tables with students sitting all along them going along the length of the hall. Then there was a fifth table at the very front were all the teachers sat. Each of the tables was set with sparkling golden plated and goblets. The whole room was lit by candles floating in the air above all the tables and the ghosts who shone amongst the students; Harriet recognised some of them from a few moments ago in the other chamber.

Professor McGonagall led them all to the front of the hall until they were standing in front of the teacher's table. Harriet didn't want to see hundreds of people watching them so she turned and looked at the teachers instead. In the middle was a man with a silvery beard and hair which was so long that Harriet couldn't see the end of it when he was sitting down. Harriet assumed this was the head teacher, Albus Dumbledore. Harriet's attention was drawn away from the teachers table as Professor McGonagall sat a four legged stool in front of the first years and sat a dirty, patched and frayed wizard's hat on top of the stool. Harriet wondered what they had to do with the hat to get sorted and then a rip near the brim opened and the hat began to sing.

'_Oh, you may not think I'm pretty,_

_But don't judge on what you see,_

_I'll eat myself if you can find_

_A smarter hat than me._

_You can keep your bowlers black,_

_Your top hats sleek and tall,_

_For I'm the Hogwarts sorting hat_

_And I can cap them all._

_There's nothing hidden in your head_

_The sorting hat can't see,_

_So try me on and I will tell you_

_Where you ought to be._

_You might belong to Gryffindor,_

_Where dwell the brave at heart,_

_Their daring, nerve and chivalry_

_Set Gryffindor's apart;_

_You might belong in Hufflepuff,_

_Where they are just and loyal,_

_Those patient Hufflepuff's are true_

_And unafraid of toil;_

_Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,_

_If you've a ready mind,_

_Where those of wit and learning,_

_Will always find their kind;_

_Or perhaps in Slytherin_

_You'll make your real friends,_

_Those cunning folk use any means_

_To achieve their ends._

_So put me on! Don't be afraid!_

_And don't get in a flap!_

_You're in safe hands (though I have none)_

_For I'm a Thinking Cap!'_

The whole hall burst into applause at the end of the hats song and the hat bowed to each of the four house tables before it became still. Harriet smiled to herself. So it wasn't a test that they had to do the hat was going to decide what house they should be in. Harriet didn't even stop and wonder what house she would be in she was just going to trust the hats judgement, she did however pause to think how weird it was that she was trusting a hat. Professor McGonagall stepped forward with a large role of parchment.

"When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted. 'Abbott, Hannah!"

At her name being called, a girl with blond hair in pigtails stumbled forward and out the hat on her head and sat down. The hat was far too big and fell over her eyes and rested on her nose, there was a moments silence before the hat shouted out.

"HUFFLEPUFF"

The table on the right clapped their hands as Hannah went and sat down at that table. Then the next name was called out by Professor McGonagall.

"Bones, Susan!"

"HUFFLEPUFF"

"Boot, Terry!"

"RAVENCLAW"

This time the table second from the left cheered and some of the Ravenclaw's stood to shake Terry's hand.

"Brocklehurst, Mandy!"

"RAVENCLAW"

"Brown, Lavender!"

"GRYFINDOR"

The table on the far left clapped and cheered.

"Bulstrode, Millicent!"

"SLYTHERIN"

The table second from the right clapped and Harriet thought that the biggest people seemed to be in that house.

"Finch-Flechley, Justin!"

"HUFFLEPUFF"

"Finigan, Seamus!"

"GRYFINDOR"

"Granger, Hermione!" Harriet whispered a quick good luck to Hermione before she practically ran to the stool and jammed the sorting hat on her head.

"GRYFINDOR"

"Longbottom, Neville!"

"GRIFFINDOR"

Neville was so happy about being in Gryffindor that he ran off still wearing the hat before realising his mistake and jogging back to the stool to give the hat to the next person.

When the blond hair boy was called Harriet found out that his name was Draco Malfoy. She didn't like how he seemed to swagger up to the stool as if he owned the place. The had had barely touched his head when it called out Slytherin. The group of first years left to be sorted was very small now. Harriet started to get nervous as the names progressed knowing that her name would be called out soon.

"Moon…Nott…Parkenson…Patil…Patil…Perks..."

Then it happened, "Potter, Harriet"

Harriet walked forward, she knew she wasn't imagining the whispers when people herd her name, though she tried her best to block them out, but she could still hear some of the louder whispers.

"Potter? Is she the lost Potter?"

"Does that mean Harry will be here as well?"

Then the hat was placed on her head covering her eyes and ears. Then Harriet heard a voice inside her head. "Hmm, Potter ehh… difficult. You have got courage, and talent. You seem keen to prove yourself. A good mind. I wonder where to put you. No preconceptions. I think you would do well in… SLYTHERIN!" With that the hat was lifted from Harriet's head and she walked over to the Slytherin table making sure to sit as far away from Draco Malfoy as she could. Once she sat down at her house table she turned to watch Harry get sorted. It took a moment, but the hat finally declared him a Gryffindor.


	17. Chapter 17

Thank you lovegoodpotter and court2010 for being such good betas.

I do not own Harry Potter.

I'm so sorry for the delay but i had no internet conection this past week due to me moving into my college accomodation and not having my log in details until we got our login details. I'm back now and here's the next chapter

Chapter 17

After the Potter twins had been sorted there was a lot of whispering throughout the rest of the sorting even though there were only three left.

"Turpin, Lisa!"

"RAVENCLAW"

"Weasley, Ronald!"

"GRYFINDOR"

"Zabini, Blaise!"

"SLYTHERIN".

That was the end of the sorting. Professor McGonagall rolled up the parchment and took the sorting hat and the stool away. Then Albus Dumbledore stood up from his position at the middle of the staff table. He was smiling at them all as if this was the happiest moment of his life before he addressed them.

"Welcome! Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you!" With that he sat back down to cheers and clapping.

Harriet was extremely confused, what was the point in that speech? She looked around at all the students around her and noticed that all of the older students seemed to think that this was normal. Which got her thinking were these normal words to say before a feast in the wizarding world or was it just normal words to be heard coming from Professor Dumbledore. Then Harriet took another look at the students around her and noticed they were all eating. The previously empty plates were now filled with every imaginable type of food she could think of and a few more. Harriet suddenly realising how hungry she was started pilling her plate with food. She took her first bite and instantly fell in love with the Hogwarts food. It was just so delicious.

Harriet hardly spoke during the feast. For some reason all of the Slytherin's seemed to think that she didn't belong in their house and Harriet didn't want to force her company on anyone. She had just decided that if no-one in her own house would be friends with her or even talk to her then she would talk to someone in a different house, after all she didn't particularly need any close friends just someone to keep her company every now and again.

After all that was what she was used to in her primary school, she would talk to everybody but had no real friends that she would go out of her way to talk to or hang out with. Harriet simply listened to the conversations going on around her as she ate her food. However, Harriet couldn't help occasionally glancing over to the Gryffindor table to see how Hermione and Harry were doing. They seemed to be having lots of fun and were talking to everyone nearby including the ghost at that table.

Harriet managed to look over just in time to see the ghost who was wearing a ruff and tights suddenly pulling his head off to one side so that it was just being held on by an inch of skin which was acting like a hinge, before swinging it back onto his neck. Then Harriet had to turn back to her food as Harry suddenly looked over towards the Slytherin table.

However when Harriet sneaked another peak she found that it wasn't her direction that the Gryffindor's were looking in, it was Malfoy's. Harriet glanced quickly at Malfoy and had to stifle a laugh as she saw who he was sitting next to. It was the Slytherin ghost who she had overheard was called the Bloody Baron, and Malfoy did not look happy to be sitting next to the blood covered ghost.

After everyone had eaten the food faded away leaving the plates as clean as if they had never had food on them just seconds before. Them the plates were refilled with pudding. Everything was there from chocolate fudge cake, chocolate melt*, chocolate éclairs and that was only some of the things beginning with chocolate, then there was ice-cream of every flavour, pancakes, waffles, cones, doughnuts, trifle, jelly, rice pudding, and so the list continued. This even put Harriet's birthday party buffet to shame.

From listening to the conversation around her, Harriet deducted that Draco Malfoy was the most pompous, self-centred, spoilt brat that she had ever met. The two boys beside him Crabbe and Goyle were unbelievably stupid and had absolutely no common sense at all, and didn't even seem to notice anything wrong with Malfoy bossing them around and putting them down all the time. It was sickening.

Harriet also learned that it wasn't only Malfoy who seemed to be a bully at the Slytherin table. In fact most of the Slytherin's seemed to be bullies. They would make fun of people from the other Houses, picking at their faults occasionally calling something to one of the Hufflepuffs or Ravenclaws nearby to embarrass them or make them feel bad. Harriet hated the atmosphere, though she had noticed that the Slytherin's all seemed to stick together they would defend each other and not a single word had been said about another Slytherin to so much as make them feel the slightest bit uncomfortable.

Harriet looked up at Harry for what she had decided would be the last time that night and saw him looking at the staff table with an odd expression on his face. Harriet followed his gaze and spotted and teacher with a hooked nose and shoulder length greasy black hair looking at him as if the very presence of Harry in the same room as that teacher disgusted him. Pulling up her courage Harriet turned to a boy just across from her who was wearing a prefect's badge.

"Excuse me?" Harriet called to draw the prefect's attention to her. The boy looked over at her and Harriet continued. "Hi, I'm Harriet, I was wondering if you could tell me who some of my teachers would be?" she asked nodding towards the staff table.

"Off course, I'm Edmund Castor, nice to meet you, Harriet." He gave her a knowing smile before he continued to tell her who she would get out of the teachers at the staff table. "First person you should know is Professor Snape; he's our head of house and the Potions Master, he's sitting there with the black hair next to the professor with the purple turban on."

Harriet was amazed the one teacher that she wanted to know the name of was the first person mentioned to her. She certainly hoped that the professor didn't have such a disliking for her as he seemed to have for her brother. "The professor with the purple turban is Professor Quirrell who is the Defence Against The Dark Arts teacher, and then the man in the middle is the head teacher as you've probably gathered, his name's Albus Dumbledore. The woman next to him is Professor McGonagall; she's the head of the Gryffindor house, the deputy head and the Transfiguration professor."

Harriet, of course, knew who Professor McGonagall was; she did not know that she had so many titles though. "Professor Flitwick is the dwarf; he is the Charms professor and the head of the Ravenclaws. Next to him is Professor Sprout, she's the head of the Hufflepuff's and the Herbology teacher. Other than that, your other professors, who are not here are Professor Bins who teaches History of Magic he's a ghost. I think that is all that you will get for your first year. You'll probably have a different Defence Against The Dark Arts teacher next year though, since the job is cursed and Professor Quirrell is afraid of his own shadow, so I sincerely doubt he will last very long."

With that Edmund Castor turned back to his friend, and Harriet started eating her angel delight again looking at all the teachers she would have and trying her best to memorise their faces with their names. It didn't help that she was starting to get sleepy. When Professor Snape turned and looked at her she was shocked. She had hoped that the professor wouldn't hater her as much as her brother, and he certainly didn't. The look that he was giving her was the complete opposite. He looked longingly at her as if he wanted her to like him. Was that what she saw? She didn't see how he could be fond of her since she had never even spoken two words to him in her life. Harriet shrugged it off and turned back to finish her food.

Finally the puddings disappeared as well and Professor Dumbledore once again got to his feet. Instantly all the chatter stopped as everyone turned to the head teacher.

"Ahem – just a few more words now we are all fed and watered. I have a few start of term notices to give you. First years should note that the forest in the grounds is forbidden to all pupils. And a few older students would do well to remember this as well." At this Dumbledore looked over at the Gryffindor table nearby were Harry was sitting. Harriet wasn't sure who it was he was looking at though as the Ravenclaw table was in the way.

"I have also been asked by Mr filch, the caretaker, to remind you all that no magic should be used between classes in the corridors. Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of term. Anyone interested in playing for their house teams should contact Madam Hooch. And finally, I must tell you that this year; the third-floor corridor on the right hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death."

Harriet heard a few people laugh it was clear that this statement had got people thinking. Why would something be kept in a school if it was capable of killing painfully why hadn't the professors got rid of whatever it was surely there was a spell or something that could stop it?

"And now, before we go to bed, let us sing the school song!" cried Dumbledore. The other teachers seemed to be forcing their smiles, unlike Dumbledore who seemed excited. Dumbledore flicked his wand and a golden ribbon came out of the end of his wand and weaved into words.

"Everyone pick their favourite tune. And off we go!" at this everyone started singing tonelessly at different speeds and pitches.

"_Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy warty Hogwarts,_

_Teach us something please,_

_Whether we be old and bald,_

_Or young with scabby knees,_

_Our heads could do with filling,_

_With some interesting stuff,_

_For now their bare and full of air,_

_Dead flies and bits of fluff,_

_So teach us things worth knowing,_

_Bring back what we've forgot,_

_Just do your best, we'll do the rest,_

_And learn until our brains all rot."_

Everybody finished at different times, until it was only a couple of Gryffindor twins who looked like they could be Harry's friend and Ron's brothers. These boys were singing in a slow funeral march which Dumbledore conducted the last few lines with his wand. And then everybody clapped when they finished.

"Ah, music," exclaimed Dumbledore wiping at his eyes. "A magic beyond all we do here! And now, bedtime. Off you trot!" With that all the older students hurried out of the hall chatting with their friends. The prefects gathered the first years for their house and began leading them off to wherever they were to sleep.

Edmund Castor led the Slytherin first years out of the halls and down a set of stone steps towards the dungeons. Once at the bottom of the steps they followed Edmund Caster for what seemed like ages through a labyrinth of corridors before finally they arrived in front of a bare stone wall that was damp just like all the other walls.

"The password is power," with the password and a stone door slid open allowing them into the common room. The common room had rough stone walls a low ceiling and was long. There were round lamps hanging from the ceiling by chains that shone with a green tinge. An elaborately carved mantel piece held a crackling fire and had carved chairs around it.

"This is the Slytherin common room the girls dorms are through that door first years will be at the end of the corridor on the left. Boys the same for you but through that door there." With these instructions Edmund pointed to two doors at the end of the common room facing each other on opposite walls. Now knowing where they could go to bed all of the first years split into girls and boys and wandered into the appropriate door to the end of the corridor and in the last door on the left.

In the room Harriet noticed that there was a four poster bed for each of the five girls in the room. Millicent Bulstrode, pushed her way forward and took the bed next to the only window in the room. Tracey Davis, ended up with the bed next to her. Daphne Greengrass was in the bed across from the window and Millicent with Pansy Parkinson next to her. This left Harriet with the bed next to the door.

Harriet noticed that once the beds had been picked her trunk and Samuels's cat basket appeared at the end of her bed. She hurried over and let Samuel out of the basket and he leapt up onto the bed stretched then curled up on a corner of the pillow. Harriet wanted so badly to be able to do the same as him, but instead she took out the cat dishes and sat the food dishes on the floor next to her bedside table and took the water dish to the bathroom to fill with water before sitting it down next to the two empty dishes. With this done Harriet pulled out a pair of pyjamas from her trunk and after getting changed climbed into bed. The last thing that Harriet remembered before she fell asleep was Sammy shifting his position so that instead of being in the corner of the pillow he was now snuggled up next to Harriet's chest under one of her arms.

_Court2010: Chocolate melt is sort of like mud pie. Yum… _


	18. Chapter 18

Thank you, lovegoodpotter and court2010 for being such good betas.

I do not own harry potter.

Chapter 18

The next morning when Harriet woke up she had the realisation that she was in Hogwarts at last; she had to pinch herself in the arm just to make sure that she wasn't dreaming. Ever since she had accepted that Hogwarts and magic was real she had been looking forward to arriving here and discovering the greatest imaginings of what Hogwarts would be like, or at least what she had seen of it so far. True she had only seen some of the dungeons and the main entrance, but even those were amazing in Harriet's point of view.

At the breakfast table that morning, Harriet didn't mind that about half of the Slytherin's were drawing her looks or that the other half didn't seem to want to cause trouble by befriending her. She ate her breakfast in silence and didn't bother anybody.

Professor Snape was walking along the length of the table handing out timetables to all of the Slytherins, and it seemed that when he got to Harriet he paused longer than with anyone else and seemed to inspect and have good look at her before moving on again, almost as though he was looking for something.

Harriet just shrugged it off and finished her breakfast as she looked at her timetable. Herbology, history of magic and transfiguration were the subjects that she had for that day. She couldn't wait to get started Herbology and History of Magic were with the Ravenclaws and Transfiguration was with the Hufflepuffs. Harriet couldn't wait to get started.

Soon Harriet was trying to find her way to her classes on time, which really wasn't an easy task as there were 142 different staircases which changed were they lead to every now and again. Then the doors sometimes were not doors or you had to do something specific to get them to open like ask nicely or tickle them in a particular place. The statues and occupants of pictures also confused things by moving around, and if you were running late for class the last person you wanted to see was peeves the poltergeist who would throw thing at you or pull practical jokes on you to hold you up even longer.

Despite her difficulties in finding her classes Harriet was loving her lessons. She was glad that she had decided to read her textbooks before coming to Hogwarts, and was able to answer questions when asked though often she would wait to see if anyone else had the answer before she would put up her hand, as she was getting more than enough attention already. Wherever Harriet went there were whispers and stares. Everywhere except in the Slytherin common room where she was more often ignored unless she spoke directly to someone.

In classes Harriet had even stopped sitting on the Slytherin side of the classes instead she would sit in the middle so that she wasn't in the other houses side of the classroom but had someone to sit next to who wouldn't ignore her. This was how she made a few friends. When she had a class with the Ravenclaws she would often end up sitting next to Mandy Brocklehurst, Morag McDougal or Michael Corner. In the classes the Slytherin's shared with the Hufflepuffs she could be found sitting next to either Susan Bones or Megan Johnes. So far she had not had any classes with the Gryffindors.

So far Harriet had had Herbology and History of Magic with the Ravenclaws and Transfiguration and Charms with the Hufflepuffs. Defence Against the Dark Arts and Astronomy were only with the Slytherins and the only classes so far that Harriet had to sit on her own in. For the Defence Against The Dark Arts classes she sat at the back of the class with a whole double desk to herself in Astronomy it didn't matter so much since they were all on the Astronomy Tower with their own equipment.

Today though was Friday. The last day of the week before her first weekend at Hogwarts. Today would also be her first Potions class with her head of house Professor Snape which would be with the Gryffindors. Harriet wondered if she would be able to sit next to Hermione or if she had made friends in Gryffindor that she would rather sit next to. At this point Harriet noticed the time and stuffed the last of her toast into her mouth before hurrying off to find the dungeon that the Potions class would be held in.

It didn't take her as long as she thought it would to find the correct class and she ended up being the first person there so she stood a little away from the door and waited. When Harriet heard footsteps coming her way she looked up and saw that it was Pansy Parkinson and Tracey Davis, who had arrived. The girls saw who it was and Harriet saw that they look around to double check that no one else was there.

"All alone again, Potter? Got no friends? We could be your friends; couldn't we Tracey?" Harriet knew from the sarcastic tone in Pansy's voice that she was teasing and not actually being serious. She shrugged her shoulders and looked away from them, not even wanting to justify them with a reply. However the girls didn't seem to like this approach. Tracey drew out her wand.

"You really do need to learn some manners, Potter. Pansy was talking to you; it's only manners to reply to her don't you think?"

"I don't justify people with an answer when they are trying to be bullies." Replied Harriet easily, appearing to the other two girls as though she was not affected in the slightest. On the inside however she was fuming.

Harriet had just noticed Pansy pull out her wand at the same time as Tracey was lifting hers to cast a spell of some sort at Harriet, when before Harriet even had a chance to react both of the girls wands flew out of their hands and slowly gained height so that by the time the girls had recovered from their shock of their wands flying out of their hands their wands were hovering just out of their reach.

The two girls instantly tried jumping to catch their wands out of the air whilst Harriet peered behind them and spotted Hermione with her wand out pointed in the direction of the floating wands. Harriet grinned and mouthed her thanks to Hermione as she nodded and flicked her wands sending the two wands flying towards the other end of the corridor causing Pansy and Tracey to go running after them. Moments later the clatter of wood could be heard as Hermione ended the spell and the two wands clattered to the floor at the end of the corridor. Hermione joined Harriet next to the wall.

"Thanks, Hermione; I really owe you one." Said Harriet earnestly, as that was the first time anyone had threatened to use magic against her.

"It wasn't a problem; hey, do you have anyone to sit next to in this class yet? Hermione appeared to be trying to change the topic, so Harriet went along with it.

"No, I don't sit with any of the Slytherins, and this is the first class I've had with Gryffindor so far, do you?"

"Well I was kinda hoping that we could sit together, we had so much fun on the train here…" Hermione trailed off and Harriet had the distinct impression that she had stopped herself from saying something else.

"Yeah, I would love that. You are the first friend I've made from the wizarding world after all." At these words Hermione beamed which made Harriet wonder if Hermione had managed to make any other friends yet. She decided that she would watch out for Hermione and try to find out. By this time the rest of the class had arrived and the door to the dungeon was opened and they all filed in and found seats. Harriet looked around but could not see professor Snape so she turned to Hermione.

Suddenly the professor flounced in from the door near the front of his class and the class intently went quite. Professor Snape seemed to possess the ability to keep a class quiet and under control. Snape started the lesson by taking the register. He paused and looked up when he called Harriet Potter and Harriet was just starting to wonder if she had maybe missed a question or something when he continued onto Harry Potter which he also paused at.

"Ah, yes, Harry Potter. Our new – celebrity." He spoke softly to the class. Harriet heard Draco Malfoy and a few of the other Slytherin boys snicker and she turned and glared at them, before she turned and gave a glare to Snape however, she remembered that he was a teacher and that she might get into trouble so she looked down at her desk. She hated the idea of anyone being picked on; she couldn't believe that a teacher was being a bully. Snape finished taking the register and looked up at the class with cold dark eyes, although Harriet got a little uncomfortable when she noticed that they seemed to warm up a fraction whenever he looked at her.

"You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion-making, as there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe that this is magic." Professor Snape was talking barely above a whisper, though they were all able to catch every word, as the class were all so quiet. "I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses … I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death – if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach."

The whole class became even more silent if that was possible, Harriet took a glance next to her and noticed Hermione perched on the edge of her seat. It was clear that she was keen to prove that she wasn't a dunderhead. Harriet was snapped out of her thoughts at a sudden sharp voice calling from the front of the class.

"Potter!" Both Harriet and Harry looked at Snape though Harriet couldn't tell who he was referring to as Harry was sitting right behind her. "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?" Hermione's hand shot up into the air. Harriet was desperately trying to remember, she vaguely remembered it, oh what was it? She thought desperately to herself.

"I don't know, sir." Harry answered. At this Snape's lip curled into a gleeful sneer and Harriet realised it was in fact harry that he had been asking.

"Tut, tut – fame clearly isn't everything." Harriet could feel her anger bubbling up inside of her, how dare he speak to Harry like that, it wasn't his fault that he was famous, he didn't go around boasting about his fame to everyone, in fact he seemed to try and keep to himself. "Let's try again. Potter, where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?"

Harriet knew this one; she could feel more than see Hermione raising her hand up into the air. Harriet gave a quick glare at Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle who were shaking with laughter, before summering up her courage.

"In the stomach of a goat, sir," at this Snape's eyes shot to Harriet's in surprise, he had clearly not been expecting her to answer. The class were silent for a moment and Harriet saw out of the corner of her eye Hermione slowly lowering her hand. All the while Harriet did not let the defiant look slip from her face or her eyes break eye contact with Snape.

"What is the difference, Potter, between monkshood and wolfsbane?" Hermione raised her hand again.

"There is no difference sir they are both the same plant." Now Harriet was starting to feel uncomfortable as Snape still hadn't broken eye contact, though she was determined not to show her discomfort, for she knew that that is what bullies looked for.

"Miss Potter, could you wait after class; Mr Potter, I suggest you take a leaf out of your sister's book, and open a book before coming to my next class. And for your information, Mr Potter, asphodel and wormwood make a sleeping potion so powerful it is known as the draught of living death. A bezoar is a stone which is in fact taken from the stomach of a goat, and it will save you from most potions. As for monkswood and wolfsbane, Miss Potter was correct; the plant also goes by the name aconite. Well? Why aren't you all copying that down?" There was a rummage as everyone took out parchment and quills.

The lesson didn't improve for the Gryffindors as the potions lesson progressed. Snape put them all into pairs and set the task of making a cure for boils. As they were preparing their ingredients Snape would wonder around with his cloak billowing behind him criticising most people's potions especially the Gryffindors. The only exceptions were Harriet and Draco. In fact Snape was just telling everyone to look at how Draco had flawlessly stewed his horned slugs when there acid greens clouds of smoke suddenly filled the dungeon.

Harriet looked over and found one of the Gryffindor boys next to Harry had somehow managed to melt his partner's cauldron. The cauldron was now a blob on the desk and the potion was spilled everywhere seeping along the stone floor. Harriet jumped up onto her stool quickly as she felt holes being burned into her shoes. Within seconds she wasn't the only one the whole class were perched on top of their stools to avoid the potion. The Gryffindor boy was now moaning in pain, as he had been soaked from head to foot in the potion when the cauldron collapsed, and big red boils were appearing all over his face, hands, arms and legs.

"Idiot boy!" Spat Snape, who with a wave of his wand cleared the potion away from the floor. "I suppose you added the porcupine quills before taking the cauldron off the fire?" His reply from the boy was more whimpers of pain as more boils appeared on his nose. "Take him up to the hospital wing," spat Snape at the boy's partner.

Then he decided to round on Harry and Ron. "You-Potter – why didn't you tell him not to add the quills? Thought he'd make you look good if he got it wrong, did you? That's two points from Gryffindor. One for that boy neglecting to read instructions and another for you not telling him he was getting it wrong. Harriet spotted harry opening his mouth to argue when Ron must have kicked him under the desk because she heard Ron mumble something in his ear. Harriet decided that if he wasn't going to stick up for himself then she would.

"Sir, he had his own potion to do and he was looking at Draco's perfectly stewed horned slugs like you told us to."

"Miss Potter, you are already staying behind after class; do not push me."

As the rest of the class climbed the steps out of the dungeon Harriet stayed at her desk, packing all of her things slowly until the rest of the class had left and then she walked up to Professor Snape's desk.

"Miss Potter, do you not have any respect for your elders, or your teachers?"

"I do, sir, but I do not have any respect for bullies." Harriet was feeling rather brave at that moment. She really didn't know what was getting into her. Snape looked surprised at her answer, then he collected himself and to Harriet's surprise he gave a small smile.

"Just like your mother. She hated bullies, and would often step in to help the person being bullied."

"You knew my mother?"

"Yes, we were friends and went to school together. You look just like her." This really wasn't what Harriet had expected when she had been told to stay behind she had expected to get into trouble not find out about her biological family.

"Could…" Harriet hesitated in her request wondering if it would be wrong to ask. She decided to just go ahead and ask anyway. "Could you maybe tell me more about her? Just I don't know anything about my birth family except what's in a baby book my parents salvaged from the wreckage." Snape looked surprised at this

"Yes, but some other time you should get going off to lunch." Harriet looked intently at the professor trying to work him out before turning and walking out of the class, she paused briefly before closing the door to take another look and saw the professor taking a deep shaky breath before she quietly closed the door and left.


	19. Chapter 19

Thank you to my 2 betas lovegood potter and court2010.

I do not own Harry Potter.

A not very important author's note. Although I know this won't be read for a while since I write my chapters ahead of the chapters I post I just want to say how happy I am because we have a new addition to the family. A little ferret kitten, his name is Bailey and even though he bites loads at the moment (my nose, ear and swollen finger all evidence of that) he sure is a character as he has started picking on the other two ferrets who are two years old when they are let out together. He is so funny and cute to watch, just thought I'd get it all off my chest. Enough of my ramblings here's the chapter which is the real reason you are on this web page.

**Chapter 19**

When Harriet made her way to her dorm room to drop off her books before and gather her things into a bag for Herbology before she went for her lunch. She couldn't help but think about her head of house. It had been the first time she had spoken to him and she couldn't shake the feeling that she might be able to help him in some way. No matter how hard she tried she just couldn't shake the image of him sitting at his desk looking so shaken and… well, just so upset.

Harriet was so caught up in her thoughts she never once looked over at the other tables or listened in on the conversations going on around her like she usually did at meal time.

Harriet was glad when she arrived at the green houses because it meant that she had someone she could talk to in order to distract her from her thoughts. She was next to Michael Corner and Morag McDougal in Herbology and often Mandy Brocklehurst would join them as well.

"So how has your first week been?" Morag asked the others in the group.

"I love it; so far it's not at all like I thought it would be, my favourite subject has to be Charms." Replied Michael, "We have charms with Gryffindors"

"Ohh, charms is a lot of fun it's really interesting, don't you just love Professor Flitwick? He has to be my favourite professor, though Transfiguration is my favourite subject so far." Said Mandy.

"Well, personally I like Herbology; isn't Defence Against The Dark Arts a joke? How are we supposed to learn anything and the same goes for History of Magic?" Harriet didn't fail to notice that Potions hadn't been mentioned at all; she decided not to bring it up after all she didn't particularly want to remember that morning anyway. "What do you think Harriet? What's your favourite class?"

"Erm, I enjoyed Astronomy last night." Harriet mentioned another class that she hadn't noticed had not been mentioned maybe Potions wasn't a taboo topic.

"Yeah, that was fun I've never thought much about the stars before, to think that they have been up there every night and I've never given them a second thought before now." Said Mandy she seemed to be deep in thought.

"What did you have this morning Harriet we had double Defence Against The Dark Arts," asked Michael. Well there was no way Harriet would be able to get out of talking about Potions.

"We had potions with the Gryffindors. Replied Harriet trying to appear nonchalant about it; however she noticed that the Ravenclaws around her shared a dark look."

"How was Snape with you all?" asked Morag.

"He seemed to favour the Slytherins, and he was a bully towards a couple of the Gryffindor boys. Harriet was trying not to get all worked up again. The others just looked at her funny, "What?"

"Well, your Slytherin; we thought you would be happy about that." Answered Morag.

"What Morag means is that we knew you were different from the other Slytherins but this just proves how different you are." Clarified Mandy

"Maybe the sorting hat made a mistake when he was sorting you." Theorised Michael. This gave Harriet something to think about. Had the sorting hat made a mistake? That would explain why she was so different from the other members of her house. It also would explain why she hadn't made in friends from Slytherin in the week that she had been here.

Just then Professor Sprout told them to pack up there things and put all the empty pods in the compost heap before they left.

Harriet noticed that Harry and Ron were not at the Gryffindor table that night at dinner. She looked around but couldn't find them anywhere. She shrugged of the small knot of worry in her stomach and started eating her dinner. She finished quickly and headed up to her dorm to do some homework.

The next morning Harriet woke up and realising it was Saturday she got up and had a nice long shower, before going to find Sam. She sort of felt she was neglecting him in all of her excitement of her first week of classes. She had played with him and talked to him at night whilst she did her homework, but now that she wasn't feeding him or giving him fresh water she felt as if she was spending less time with him, even his litter tray was always clean and fresh. There must be someone or a spell in the castle that did all those things for them.

She found Sammy under a chair in her Slytherin common room he was playing with a tassel hanging from the arm of the chair. Samuel left the tassel and pounced over to Harriet and leaped smoothly into her arms when she crouched down for him. She scratched him at the joint between his jaw and his neck and he instantly started purring and leaning his head into her hand. Harriet gave a little giggle and pulled out a toy and spent the next couple hours playing with Sammy until she saw a few people pass her on their way to breakfast and decided that she had probably get going to breakfast as well. She gave a last scratch in Sammy's favourite place and left to go get her breakfast.

When Harriet had finished breakfast she was just finishing her second glass of orange juice when she saw Harry and Ron leave their table. Harriet hastily put her glass down and left the hall after them wanting to talk to Harry. Out in the entrance hall Harriet called out to Harry as he was about to go up the stairs. He stopped and turned to see who had called him. And Harriet hurried over to him.

"Harry, are you busy today?" Asked Harriet hurriedly she had seen the expression Ron had made when he had seen who it was and she didn't want to give him a chance to get harry away before she could talk to him.

"Not particularly, why?"

"Just I was hoping that we could hang out and maybe get to know each other today." Replied Harriet suddenly feeling a little self-conscious and scared about his answer. This was her twin brother she had dreamed about meeting him and getting to know him all summer since she had found out about him.

"Yeah, that sounds like fun; I'll just go up and get my cloak and I'll meet you at the main entrance in about ten minutes?" He made it into a question asking Harriet if that suited her in the way he said it.

"Yeah, I'll be here waiting." Grinned Harriet, she was actually going to have a prober conversation with her brother. Though technically she was having one with him now but that didn't count. "I'll see you in ten minutes." Said Harriet as she turned and headed to the dungeons to get her own cloak. Then she heard Ron as the boys headed up the marble staircase.

"You're actually going to meet up with her? She's a Slytherin, Harry; she's probably going to ambush us when we turn up." Then Harriet was out of hearing range.

Harriet felt tears sting at her eyes. What if Harry listened to Ron and decided that it would be a bad idea to hang out with her because she was in stupid Slytherin? What if she was left standing there and he never turned up? Could being in Slytherin really hurt any chance she had of really having a brother or getting to know a part of her biological family?

Harriet pushed the thought to the back of her head and fought back the tears before they could spill as she reached the wall to her common room. She gave the password and ran up and got her cloak and a small bag then left heading back to the main entrance to wait for Harry. Harriet tried not to think if Harry turned up.

Harriet arrived at the main entrance with five minutes still to wait for Harry, so she took a seat on the stair just at the end of the banister so that she would be out of people's way. Harriet was then caught up in her own thought. She was so caught up in her thoughts that she had failed to notice someone walk past her then notice her sitting on the stairs and turn around and stop right in front of her. It was only when she heard a voice that she jumped and looked up.

"Miss Potter, what might I ask are you doing sitting on the stairs that is hardly a Slytherin worthy place to sit." Looking up with her heart racing from the fright she got Harriet noticed Professor Snape right in front of her. Hastily Harriet stood up and brushed herself down not wanting to get on the wrong side of her head of house any more than what she had probably already done in class yesterday.

"Sorry, sir, I was just waiting for someone." Answered Harriet looking up at her professor.

"Clearly, I hope that you have enjoyed your first week at Hogwarts." Harriet was caught off guard at this comment. Looking at the professor searchingly she noticed that his expression usually so stern and hard was softened as he looked at her.

"Yes, sir, I've enjoyed my first week here." Replied Harriet eventually.

"I trust that you have made friends in Slytherin and possibly some of the other houses?" Asked Snape; the second part sounded more uncertain as if Snape doubted that a Slytherin could make friends so quickly from another house.

"I've made a few friends from other houses, sir; though non from Slytherin yet." Harriet replied truthfully. Harriet had to try not to smile at the surprised look on her head of houses face but then she found herself not having to try as she noticed a look of concern flick across the professor's features before his face turned blank and he gave her a nod and turned to continue on his way.

This in itself gave Harriet something to worry about. Was being in Slytherin and not having any Slytherin friends something to be concerned about. Should she be making more of an effort to fit in with the other Slytherins and to make friends within her own house?

Harriet wasn't entirely sure if she wanted to make friends with the Slytherin's in her year, from what she had observed in their behaviour they were all conceited, smug, overly proud, and in the muggle world they would be seen as being racist judging people from the other houses just because they were not from the same house as themselves.

It wasn't the same as muggle racists but it was the same judgemental principal and almost as bad. Even in the muggle world Harriet had never understood how some people could be so narrow minded and judge people on what they see on the outside, instead of waiting until they actually got to know the person before passing judgement.

Harriet then remembered why she was standing in the Grand Hall and shook herself out of her thoughts. She looked down at her watch and sighed.

It was just after the time that Harry was supposed to meet her. Did this mean that he wasn't coming, or did it mean that he was running late? If he was coming was Ron going to come with him like he seemed to assume, or would Harriet be able to get to know her brother in private without Ron—who seemed to be as bad as some of the less judgemental Slytherins.


	20. Chapter 20

Thank you to my beta's court2010 and lovegoodpotter.

I do not own Harry Potter.

**Chapter 20**

Harriet gave another sigh she shouldn't have let herself hope that Harry would be able to see more than the house after all she was a Slytherin. Heck, she didn't even like Slytherins and she was one how could she expect people from other houses especially Gryffindor to like a Slytherin.

Then Harriet heard pounding feet coming down the staircase and she turned around to see a panting harry running towards her and she couldn't stop the grin that spread on her face. He had come she was wrong he could see past the house. She would be able to get to know her brother. Another bonus was that he didn't have Ron with him either.

"Sorry, I'm late, Ron was being a bit of a prat; he tried to convince me not to come all the way up to the dorm then he tried distracting me when he realised that I wouldn't change my mind. I've just managed to shake him off." Explained Harry giving a quick look behind him to make sure that Ron wasn't behind him.

"That's alright; I'm glad you never brought him along. Shall we go for a walk in the grounds?" Asked Harriet

"Yeah, that sounds like a good plan; come-on." And with that Harry took a hold of Harriet's arm and pulled her outside. It was an unusually bright and warm day for that time of year in Scotland to the twins ended up carrying their cloaks instead of wearing them. They decided that the lake would probably be the first place Ron would look if he was determined enough to stop them meeting up so they decided to walk at the other end of the grounds from the lake.

"So do you know how we got split up?" Asked harry after they had got out of sight of the main entrance. He seemed to be just as interested in their situation and about Harriet as she was about Harry and their family.

"Actually I do; it was my mum's doing, the person who raised me I mean." Added Harriet as she saw the confused look on Harry's face when she had mentioned her mum, when the confused look cleared from his face she continued knowing he understood what she meant.

"She didn't mean to split us up; she was on her way home from work when she saw our house in ruins. She had thought it weird that she had always known it was there but hadn't actually noticed it for the past year or so. She was going to walk past when she heard a cry coming from inside the house so she had to go and make sure whoever was still in the house was okay." At this point Harriet took a deep breath to prepare herself. Her mum was going to leave this part out when she told Harriet, but Harriet being as stubborn and inquisitive as she was wouldn't let the matter rest until her insistent questions had revealed the whole story.

"The first thing she saw when she entered the ruined house was our dad lying dead just in front of the stairs, then she when upstairs to the nursery climbing over rubble as she went, in the nursery lying on the floor in front of a cot was our mum dead as well, and we were both in the cot with nothing except the cuts on our heads done to us." She took a look at Harry to see him paying her his full attention. When Harry saw her look he motioned over to a large oak tree.

"Why don't we have a seat?" Suggested Harry, Harriet nodded and they walked over to the tree and laid the cloaks down on the ground and sat on top sitting cross legged facing each other. When they were both seated comfortably Harriet continued.

"My mum knew that she wouldn't be able to carry the both of us safely through the rubble and she knew that my dad was on his way to meet her so she picked me up and took me out just around the corner to where my dad was and gave me to him, then she went back to get you, but as she turned the corner there were two men there, and the biggest one was holding you. She had only paused long enough to think that they were probably family when she turned to go and get me to give me to them as well. But when her and my dad got to the house again they were gone, taking you with them."

Harriet stopped and picked up her little bag and took some items out of it.

"My mum and dad tried everything to find you or the people who took you, they spoke to the police, social services, newspapers private investigators, news reporters, everyone. These are copies of documents and interviews they gave, trying to find you so that we could be together again." At this point Harriet handed Harry a muggle folder which he opened up to find filled with newspaper clippings, copies of police documents, and interviews with the social services and various other people.

Harriet waited for Harry to look through the folder. When he came to the end of the folder he looked up at Harriet. She looked at what he had stopped at. It was the foster care certificate that her parents received for completing a training program to allow them to foster children. And on the next page were forms that had been filled in so that they could become foster parents and full guardians of Harriet Lily potter.

"When they kept on drawing blanks on any family I might have they fostered me. They tried to adopt me initially, but with no evidence as to who my parents were or a death certificate they were rejected. I always knew that they were not my birth family and they never hid anything from me. They just waited until I felt ready to know about my birth family. They always made it perfectly clear to me that all I had to do was ask and they would tell me everything that they knew. It wasn't until the beginning of the summer that I actually wanted to know anything though." Harriet waited to let Harry take all of this in, and to let him ask her any questions.

They sat in silence for a full fifteen minutes before Harry spoke up. He looked stunned that Harriet's parents had gone through so much effort to find him and get them back together even if it meant giving up Harriet who the clearly loved a lot to want her to be happy and to try and adopt her.

"They really love you, don't they?" It was more of a statement than a question though Harriet answered anyway.

"Yeah, I couldn't have asked for better parents. I know my mum regrets not even trying to take you as well. I could hear it in her voice when she was telling me about you. She said she often wonders how you are, who you're being raised by if you're safe and loved." Harriet couldn't help the questioning tone that escaped, for she had also wondered these things and even though she had had that vision on their birthday, she didn't want it to be real, and she refused to believe it until she heard it from Harry's own mouth.

"My childhood probably couldn't have been more different from yours. I grew up being bullied by my spoiled cousin, doing chores half the time I was in the house and being locked in my cupboard which acted as my bedroom the other half of the time." Muttered Harry.

Harriet gasped at what she heard sure it wasn't as bad as she had seen in her vision, but she didn't want anyone to live like that especially not her twin brother. Without thinking Harriet got up and gave Harry a hug, she felt him stiffen under her touch, which got her angry. She was willing to bet that from the time that they were separated until now Harry had never once been hugged. She pulled back as she heard cracking overhead, and looked up just in time to see several large branches breaking from the tree they were sitting under.

The twins didn't have time to react they watched in horror as the branches came falling towards them. Until suddenly when the first of the branches was only a foot above them, all of the branches suddenly changed direction and shouted away from the twins until they landed safely twenty feet away onto the ground not harming anybody. The children were amazed and kept looking at the branches in shock at how close they had come to being seriously injured if not killed.

"That was some impressive accidental magic there, Miss Potter; though I advise you to try and keep your magic under control in the future." Harriet and Harry spun around at the voice behind them to see Snape standing there with his wand in his hand. Seeing that the children were now safe he quickly stowed his wand away and looked the pair up and down as they both scrambled to their feet. "I trust that neither of you were hurt?"

"No sir." They both replied with a shake of their heads to back up what they had just said.

"I'm curious to know what it was that got you so angry, Miss Potter." It wasn't a question or polite query it was more of a statement, however it was clear that Snape wanted an answer none the less.

"Sorry, sir, I was just angry at the unfairness of Harry's upbringing, and I realised that he had never been hugged or shown any love since we were separated." Harriet replied a little more truthfully than Harry would have liked, and more truthfully than Snape or even Harriet herself expected her to answer.

"Mister Potter, I would like a word with you after dinner come and meet me in my office."

"Yes sir." Replied Harry then as Snape kept on watching him he became aware that he was supposed to go now so he hurriedly packed the folder and the book which he had not had the chance to look at and made a move to hand them back to Harriet. However Harriet shook her head and gently pushed them towards him and away from her.

"You hold onto them; you have as much right to see them as I have; I'll get them off of you at another time, and I'll make copies for you." Insisted Harriet. She knew she had made the right choice when she saw the smile that lit Harry's face as he tucked them under his arm and lifted his cloak off the ground and hurried off.

"Now, Miss Potter if you will follow me." Instructed Snape and he waited until Harriet had closed her bag and lifted up her own cloak before striding towards the castle with Harriet hurrying along behind him.

As they approached the castle Harriet could see some of the older students looking at her whispering and giving her sympathetic looks as they saw her hurrying to keep up with the strict Potions Master. They entered the castle and down the stairs towards the dungeons, out of the corner of her eye Harriet saw harry in the main entrance looking towards her worriedly he had obviously waited for her, she shrugged her shoulders and indicated towards the marble staircase, telling him not to wait for her, before she turned and hurried after the professor as he strode towards his office with his robes billowing behind him. As he reached his office he opened the door and held it open for her. Harriet didn't wait for him to tell her to go in she walked in quickly and stood in the centre of the room.

"Sit." Commanded Snape pointing to a chair across the desk from the one that he took. "Miss Potter, I would like you to tell me what exactly Mr Potter told you."

"Sir, not to be disrespectful but shouldn't it be Harry telling you this?" Asked Harriet trying not to be intimidated by her head of house, she saw him smirk for the briefest of moments before his featured hardened again.

"That Miss Potter is why he is coming to my office after dinner, but before then I want to hear what he told you." Harriet knew better than to argue with an adult when they used that tone of voice so she immediately recalled what harry had told her, and what she had concluded when she had hugged him. The professor sat listening intently the whole time until Harriet had finished.

"I see." Was all he said at the end of the explanation? Then he got up and started pacing the room a couple of times before he retook his seat and addressed Harriet again. "Miss Potter, I would like you to attend additional lessons with me on Tuesdays after dinner, so that I can teach you how to better control your magic if you are not able to control your temper as I trust you will not be able to if you are as alike your mother as I believe you are. You may go now." And with that Harriet stood and left the room and headed back towards the Slytherin common room.


	21. Chapter 21

Thank you lovegoodpotter and court2010 my 2 awesome betas.

I was so surprised and happy with my reviews and how positive they all were that i decided to update for the third time this week as a special treat. You have no idea how happy I was to get those reviews and the new alerts and favorites, since the past week or so I have been feeling quite home sick. So all the support has really lifted my spirits thank you all so much. I might acctually be able to write some new chapters instead of posting prewritten ones without keeping a steady number ahead (I have up to chapter 25 written) any enough from me here's your present chapter 21.

I do not own Harry Potter.

**Chapter 21**

Harriet never did find out how the conversation between Snape and Harry went. Though she and Harry met up again the next day; whenever Harriet brought up the topic of Snape and the conversation Harry would change the subject. Eventually, Harriet gave up, figuring Harry would tell her if and when he wanted to.

Instead, Harriet and Harry spent their day talking to each other and getting to know each other and their different upbringings. Then Harry brought up the topic of the book that Harriet had refused to take back yesterday. Harriet had forgotten that she hadn't got round to explaining what it was until Harry asked her.

"I started that book at the beginning of the summer though I couldn't find anything to add to it after the first day."

"Oh, is that why you brought it here? You hoped to find out more things so you could add to it." Asked Harry.

"Yeah, we could have it as ours; I'll add a page for information about me if you want. It will be another way for us to get to know each other by adding information to this investigation journal and if we both add to it then we are likely to get more information that way." Replied Harriet. Harriet just couldn't wait to find out about their parents all she knew was that they seemed really happy and that they would often take her and Harry to the shops for shopping, and now that they were a witch and wizard who were murdered.

At that moment Harry got a quill and ink out and opened the book to the page with Harry James Potter and started filling it in writing anything that he could think of about him. Harriet meanwhile read what he was writing as he was writing it and asked a few questions and gave some ideas of what else he could write.

Once Harry had wrote a good few pages full, Harriet took the book from him and leaving a few pages put Harriet Lily Potter as a heading and started writing anything she could think of about herself with Harry taking over the reading and giving suggestions and asking questions. They sat like this for most of the morning until Harriet's stomach gave a loud rumble and she looked over at Harry before the both burst out laughing uncontrollably. It was a good couple of minutes before they could control themselves enough to pack up and head to lunch.

As Harriet walked over to the Slytherin table it was the first time that she really didn't want to be a Slytherin. After her taste of what things could be like if she had a close friend that morning with Harry, she didn't want to go back to just having acquaintances and silent meals listening in on other peoples conversations or lost in her own thoughts. What she wanted was someone who she could sit at the same table with and have a conversation about anything and everything. What she wanted was to have a friend in her own house that she could talk to in all of her classes instead only having friends in every other house except her own.

With this thought in her mind Harriet sat down at the side of the table so that she could easily see over to the Gryffindor table without turning around. She got her lunch and sat contemplating who she could talk to in her own house and the things they would be able to do that it wouldn't be possible for her to do with friends from other houses. She thought about late nights talking, chatting around the fire in the common room helping each other with homework after curfew, and joking and talking at the house tables and in particular at feasts. Harriet really wanted a Slytherin friend.

However there was a big major snag. Harriet didn't like the Slytherins and none of them had made any effort to talk to her. True, she hadn't made any effort to talk to them either but most of them now had friends would she be brave enough to just go up and start talking to someone, and find a way to fit in with their friends?

Harry who was sitting at the Gryffindor table with Ron kept glancing over to the Slytherin table at Harriet there would be no way that he would be able to talk to her since the Ravenclaw table was between the Gryffindor and Slytherin tables, but he could see that Harriet looked a little dejected and lost in her own thoughts. He had noticed that she rarely spoke to any of the other Slytherins and wondered if that was why she looked kind of miserable sitting there. Harry decided that he would make sure that Harriet always had a friend even if it was only him and he would look out for her and stick up for her like a brother should.

Harriet had by this time finished with her lunch and decided to go and sit in the Slytherin common room to see if anybody came in on their own that she might be able to talk to and if she never spoke to anyone at least there she would have Sammy to talk to instead. With that decided she got up and wandered over to the main entrance. Harriet hadn't taken into account that things often didn't go according to plan as when she walked through the doors into the main entrance she didn't notice that someone else had followed her through the doors and it wasn't until she was almost at the stairs for the dungeon when she felt a hand grab at her arm and pull her backwards into a broom cupboard.

"Hey, who's that; let me go!" Harriet demanded at whoever it was that had grabbed her. She tried turning around but found herself pushed against the wall with a hand over her mouth. There was silence for a few moments until the person spoke.

"Shh, keep your voice down; I'm not going to hurt you." It was a boy's voice and Harriet recognised it but at the moment she couldn't place the voice. "Now I'm going to take my hand away from your mouth and you can't shout or anything ok; you just need to listen." At the nod off Harriet's head the hand slowly came away from her mouth and Harriet stayed silent like the person had asked her.

"I just wanted to do this in private in case you didn't want to; I noticed that you haven't made any Slytherin friends." The voice sounded unsure, and when Harriet realised this she realised who it was because the person who the voice belonged to never sounded unsure of himself, in fact he always sounded cocky and pompous and overly confident and snobby. What she couldn't figure out was what Draco Malfoy was doing dragging her into a broom cupboard and sounding unsure and nervous. What was he up to that he didn't want to do in front of other people?

"I didn't want to ask you in front of other people in case you turned me down, I had enough of that when your brother did that. Anyway I was wondering if you wanted me to be your friend?" Harriet was shocked she definitely wasn't expecting that. Or for him to ask in such a nice way. However Draco took her silence the wrong way.

"Right, well I'm glad I did it in private anyway; I'll see you around; I should have known better than to ask to be friends with another Potter." And Draco turned and was about to open the door when Harriet realised that he must of took her silence for a rejection. She reached out and grabbed both his hands away from the door to stop him from leaving.

"Draco, wait." Draco stopped and turned back towards her and Harriet wished she had a little more light so she could see what his expression was. "I do want to be your friend; I was just surprised that you asked me and that you asked in a nice way. That was the only reason that Harry didn't accept your offer of friendship is because you were so nasty about it." Harriet said in a rush and only stopped because she had to take a breath.

"What so you want to be friends?" Draco asked in surprise he had been so sure that she would turn down his offer.

"Yes, Draco, I want to be your friend; though I won't let you be a bully towards people when I'm around." Answered Harriet happily; maybe making a friend in Slytherin wasn't so hard after all.

"I think I can manage that." Draco had a big smile on his face as he and Harriet left the broom cupboards Harriet was also smiling.

What they didn't anticipate was that Harry and Ron would be passing by at the moment that they walked through the door.

"Harriet, what did you do in there? Don't say that Malfoy kissed you." Harry had frozen in surprise with one foot on the first marble step.

"What? NOOOO…" Exclaimed Harriet and Draco together.

"No we were just talking honestly." Added Harriet. With that she walked over to where Harry was still frozen and gave him a hug which slowly he returned and she whispered in his ear. "You'll be the first person I tell when I have my first kiss; thank you for looking out for me though." Harriet pulled back gave Harry a big smile and walked down towards the common room.

When Harriet stopped at the wall she turned and saw Draco just behind her.

"So are we going to walk in together and just start hanging out or do you have another idea?" Asked Harriet to Draco after all he did have two other friends.

"I doubt Crabbe and Goyle will be finished lunch yet, so we could just sit by the fire and talk and see what happens from there." Drawled Draco and with that decided they gave the password and walked into the common room.

The common room was still empty as it was still early on in lunch so Harriet and Draco were able to get the two best chairs next to the fire. As soon as Harriet sat down Samuel jumped onto her lap.

"Hey, there little boy; what have you been up to today, eh?" Cooed Harriet as she scratched Samuel in his favourite place sending him into a bout of purrs. Whilst Draco sat watching in amusement.

"I've never seen anyone able to get a cat to purr as fast as you."

"You just need to make the effort to get to know the individual animal."

"So what's your excuse with the other cats around here then? Yeah, I've seen you going around talking to them all and petting them; even Mrs Norris like you." Harriet looked up at Draco then and was glad to see that he wasn't making fun of her but almost admired her for being able to get Mrs Norris to purr. Something a lot of the students thought was impossible.

"I was just nice to her. You should have seen Filches face the first time he saw me petting her. He though I had put a spell on her and chased me out into the grounds." Giggled Harriet. Draco looked shocked at first before he joined in the laughter as well.

"It's nice to see you smile and laugh, I haven't seen you laugh before, you just always seemed sad at meals or in the common room." He wasn't making fun of her just simply stating a fact and the more that Harriet thought about it the more she realised how true it was. This made Harriet determined to cheer up it was so unlike her to be so miserable and wallow in self-pity. From this moment on Harriet was going to start showing her true self.


	22. Chapter 22

Thank you lovegoodpotter and court2010 for being dedicated enough to read my chapters so quickly even when I send them in quick succession of each other. You guys are the best.

I can't thank everyone who has taken the time out to read review and add me or this story to alerts and favorites enough.

I do not own Harry Potter.

**Chapter 22**

Harriet was starting to develop a routine in her life now; she would talk with Draco at meals, in Defence Against The Dark Arts and Astronomy and a few evenings a week when she would stay in the Slytherin common room. Harriet found that once she had got to know Draco and not just see the whole pureblood supreme attitude he was actually a decent person who was a little insecure about himself and so clung onto the ideals and attitude that his parents had instead if finding himself.

Harriet hoped that she would over time be able to encourage him to learn not to rely on his parent's ideals and expectations so much and bring him out of his shell so that other people would be able to see the real Draco Malfoy and not the person he was trying so hard to be. Though she knew it would be difficult and take a lot of patience and time as Draco clung to the blanket of purist thinking as if his life depended on it.

The nights of the week that Harriet wasn't in the common room she would be found in the library with Hermione. Who was defiantly in the top of all of the classes though Harriet found that with her reading ahead in all of her textbooks before she came and her homework sessions with Hermione she was fast becoming second or third in most of her classes, and as a result found herself enjoying them a lot more as she could concentrate in perfecting her work and asking questions to clarify some points instead of just trying to get it done to begin with.

The weekends though only one had rolled by so far Harriet was spending with Harry; they had agreed that Ron could join them occasionally as well. Harriet didn't want to take Harry away from his friends and she didn't want him to have to choose between her and his friends so she really made the effort to make sure that she wasn't any kind of burden to Harry, for fear that he might decide not to talk to her anymore. Ron's statement on Saturday always seemed to niggle in the back of her mind whenever she thought about Harry. '_But she's a Slytherin.'_ Harriet really hoped that being a Slytherin wouldn't hurt her chances with Harry as he was the only family she had in the magical world.

Harriet was so busy with the magical world that she hadn't had many chances to write to her parents though she had so far managed to sent two letters one on the Monday after class to assure them that she had got their okay and describing the castle and the grounds and telling them what house she was in. the second one she had sent on the Sunday night, were she had told them all about Harry, Hermione, Susan, Megan, Mandy, Morag and Michael. She had also added a little about her new friendship with Draco, how it came about and what she thought of him so far.

Harry on the other hand hated Draco. Harriet really couldn't blame him as Draco's feeling had been hurt when harry had turned down his offer of friendship, and Draco not really knowing how to deal with the rejection, taunted harry and acted more of a prat around him than he did around anyone else. Harriet was a little exasperated with the two of them sometimes, though she understood that harry was just looking out for himself after years of being bullied by Dudley and his gang. She also understood that Draco was also just looking out for himself though it was his feelings he was trying to hide and Harriet just didn't have the heart in her to tell him to stop it altogether so she let them both be, and would only step in as soon as things started to get out of hand a little, which had been quite a lot in the week since they saw a notice on the common room notice board announcing that the first years flying lessons would be starting that Thursday, and Slytherin and Gryffindor would be together.

That whole week Harriet had had to listen to all the first years that were from wizarding families talking about flying experiences they had had at home, and whenever the boys started talking about flying they always seemed to get onto the topic of Quidditch. Harriet still didn't understand Quidditch all she could understand about it was that it was a game on broomsticks and that there were seven players, after that she always seemed to get lost as Draco would always get excited and start using all of these weird names like chasers and seekers. The only position that she kind of understood was the keeper who was like a goalie in muggle football*.

Hermione was really nervous about flying and now spent a lot of her time franticly reading and taking notes on a book called Quidditch through the ages. Which Neville, Harriet noticed, seemed to be hanging onto every word that Hermione said when she was talking about the book when Harriet past the table at breakfast on Thursday morning. Harriet had made a habit of passing the Gryffindor table at breakfasts to say _hi_ to Harry Ron and Hermione then she would say _hi _to her Ravenclaw friends on her way to the Slytherin table and would wave to her Hufflepuff friends from the Slytherin table.

Harriet was just sitting down next to Draco when the post arrived. However Draco once seeing that the Gryffindor boy Neville had got a parcel decided that he would go over and see what it was that he had got. Harriet had a bad feeling about this so she grabbed a couple of bits of toast and spread some cheese onto it and got up from the table to quickly follow Draco. As she followed him she pressed the slices of toast together to make a toast sandwich with the cheese in the middle and started to eat. Once they arrived at the Gryffindor table Draco snatched a small ball with scarlet fog inside it out of Neville's hands. Harry and Ron instantly jumped to their feet, and Harriet was just about to scold Draco when professor McGonagall turned up. She seemed to have a sixth sense for when it came to trouble.

"What's going on?" she asked.

"Malfoy's got my remembrall, Professor." Answered Neville, Draco scowled at this and just as fast as he had taken it dropped it onto the table.

"Just looking." He said and made a quick retreat, with Crabbe and Goyle close behind him.

"Sorry about him, I knew he was up to no good when he left the table so quickly." Apologised Harriet to Neville as she took another bite out of her breakfast, at the looks the Gryffindor's gave her she shrugged. "What I'm hungry and Draco didn't wait until I had even started my breakfast before deciding to cause trouble." As she said this, harry scooted up the table a little making space between him and Neville for Harriet to sit down. "Are we allowed to sit at other house tables?" Harriet wondered aloud. She glanced up at the teachers table and saw that none of the teachers were looking her way.

"They can't stop you from sitting here every once in a while." Hermione ensured Harriet. "If they did then they would just be encouraging house rivalry."

"Honestly, she has an answer for everything doesn't she," whispered Ron not too quietly. Harriet saw the flash of hurt cross Hermione's face and saw red. She turned to face Ron full on.

"So what if she has an answer for everything? It's better than having no answers and just blundering through life without a clue," snapped Harriet. Harry who had never seen Harriet like this before put his hand on her arm in a silent enquiry if she was okay. Harriet nodded to him quickly and turned to Hermione, "Are you ok? Don't listen to him he has no sense at all." Stated Harriet. What Harriet didn't notice was that her outburst towards Ron had drawn the attention of the Potions Master and Professor McGonagall. Snape couldn't help the little smirk on his lips which McGonagall noticed.

"Just like Lily, isn't she?" Asked Professor McGonagall before turning back to her breakfast as she was not expecting an answer.

"Yes," whispered Snape anyway.

Harriet meanwhile finished eating and headed off to her first lesson completely unaware of the professors exchange about her.

That after and half past three Harriet was standing next to Draco and the other Slytherins waiting for the Gryffindors and Madam Hooch, who was going to teach them to fly. There were about twenty brooms on the ground in two straight lines facing each other. When the Gryffindors arrived Harriet rushed over to Hermione and guided her over to where Draco, Crabbe and Goyle were; she stood next to the broom next to Draco, and indicated to Hermione to take the one on her other side, which was at the end of the row. Harriet didn't want Hermione to be left herself for her first flying lesson especially with how nervous she was and the way Ron had acted that morning.

Madam Hooch arrived shortly after the Gryffindors. She strode to the centre between the two rows and barked out at them all.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Everyone stand by a broomstick. Come on hurry up." Madam Hooch had the weirdest eyes Harriet had ever seen before they were yellow like a hawks. She also had grey hair which was cut short. "Stick out your right hand over your broom and say up." Commanded Madam Hooch.

Everyone started to shout _up_. Harriet's broom shot up into her hand almost before she had had the chance to finish saying up. Harriet noticed that Harry's broom had also jumped into his hand the first time as well. Harriet looked around and noticed that few others had. Hermione's broom only rolled over as she nervously said up. Harriet looked over next to Harry at Neville who was clearly very nervous as he half-heartedly said the command not entirely wanting to actually get on the broom.

Once everyone had their brooms in their hands madam hooch showed them how to mount their brooms and wondered around correcting peoples positioning and grips. When Madam Hooch stopped at Malfoy to correct him Harriet could see harry and Ron were clearly happy about Draco having to be correctly, Draco noticed as well and tried to say that he had been flying this way for years, which madam hooch's reply was that he had been doing it wrong for years then. Harriet saw the delight in harry and Ron's faces and she shot them a warning glare. Draco was already embarrassed as it was.

"Now when I blow my whistle, you kick off from the ground, hard." Instructed the flying professor. "Keep your brooms steady, rise a few feet and then come straight back down by leaning forward slightly. On my whistle – three – two - ." However Neville was so nervous about being the last one left on the ground pushed off hard before madam hooch had had the chance to blow the whistle.

"Come back boy!" She shouted as Neville rose higher and higher in the air faster than anyone would have thought possible. Soon Neville was twenty feet in the air. Harriet saw Neville, now very pale and scared looking make the mistake of looking down, before hearing him gasp in shock and fear causing him to lose his grip and slip. Harriet screamed, and started running towards the spot that Neville was falling towards before she felt arms go around her waist and hold her back.

Then there was a sickening thud and an audible crack that went through the silence and Harriet could see Neville lying face down on the ground in front of her. Harriet was pale and shaking, and desperately trying to hold in the tears as she looked at the heap that was Neville. She couldn't do anything because the arms were still around her waist retraining her and stopping her from going forward. In an attempt to control herself Harriet looked up and saw the broom still rising higher and higher as it was swept away by the wind. Then it was out of sight. When Harriet looked back down Madam Hooch was kneeling over Neville who was now sitting.

"Broken wrist." She muttered. "Come on boy – it's all right, up you get." Madam Hooch was also pale in the face as she helped Neville up and turned to the rest of the class. "None of you is to move a muscle while I take this boy to the hospital wing! You leave those brooms where they are or you'll be out of Hogwarts before you can say Quidditch! Come on, dear." Then she tuned with her arm around Neville with a tear streaked face and clutching his wrist and escorted him back towards the castle.

"Let me go." Growled Harriet as she wiped around to see who it was that was restraining her. Draco hastily pulled his arms away from around her waist and held them up.

"Well, it wouldn't have done any good for you to get hurt with the fat lump landing on top of you now would it?"

"You're an ass, Draco Malfoy." Shouted Harriet as she whizzed around and started marching over to the Gryffindors. However Draco didn't seem to know when to leave it arrest as he followed her and tried to grab her arm to turn her around. Harry instantly came to his sister's help and pushed between Draco and Harriet.

"Leave her alone, Malfoy" Said Harry menacingly. Harriet having a moment free noticed the broom she still clutched in her hand and without a second though jumped on it and kicked off. She didn't know what she was thinking, she had never flown before. All she knew was that she had to get away from Draco and have some quiet so she could think.

As soon as Harriet was in the air she knew that she had did the right thing. Flying seemed so natural and she instantly felt better. However the thrill and solitude was short lived as she noticed Draco jump onto a broom with Harry following him. Harriet heard gasps from the ground and she paid more attention to what was going on.

"Give it here, or I'll knock you off your broom." Called Harry to a shocked Draco.

"Oh yeah?" Said Draco who was clearly trying to sneer, but looked more than a little worried. Harriet gasped as she saw Harry lean forward and shoot towards Draco like a bullet. Draco just managed to dodge Harry, as Harry passed he made a sharp turn so that he was again facing Draco. There was a small applause from the ground, but Harriet paid no attention to this.

"No Crabbe and Goyle up here to save your neck, Malfoy." Shouted Harry.

"Stop it, both of you." Screamed Harriet she had already seem one person fall of a broom that day she didn't want to see Harry or Draco get hurt as well. Sure she was upset at Draco but she didn't want him hurt.

"Catch it if you can, then!" Shouted Draco as he threw something small and shining through the air. Harry instantly leaned forward with the broom handle pointed down and darted towards where the object was falling. Harriet turned back to Draco when she saw him dangling something silver. She instantly recognised it as her bracelet she looked at her wrist and saw it bare. She looked back to Draco in time to see him lob her bracelet the same way he had thrown the other object.

Harriet didn't think as she did the same as what Harry had and dived for her beloved bracelet. The broom kept on speeding up in Harriet's dive as she rushed to catch her bracelet. Harriet never even noticed the screams coming from the ground or the wind whistling through her ears she was so focused on her bracelet.

As she got closer and closer she took one hand off of the broom handle and reached out and as soon as she felt the cold metal touch her skin she clamped her hand shut with the bracelet safely inside her fist. Then Harriet looked up just in time to see that she was about to crash and she pulled the broom up just narrowly missing the ground her knees scrapping the grass, as the broom stopped and Harriet hurriedly got off it and sat heavily on the ground clutching the bracelet to her chest. She looked up and saw Harry a couple of feet away picking himself up off the ground, he wasn't hurt and they both locked eyes. Until…

"HARRY POTTER."

"HARRIET POTTER."

_American Annotations_

_Football is soccer for us Americans…_


	23. Chapter 23

Thank you lovegoodpotter and court2010 for your amazing beta skills and advice.

I do not own Harry Potter.

**Chapter 23**

Harriet saw Harry's face pale, and he looked just as frightened and worried as she felt. Less than two weeks at Hogwarts and she was already in major trouble who knows she might even be expelled; she didn't know if Hogwarts was extremely stricken about rule breaking as she hadn't even been there two weeks. Harriet shakily got to her feet and turned to see two of the strictest teachers in the school hurrying towards them. Professor McGonagall and Professor Snape; both of them looked shocked and furious.

"How dare you—might have broken your neck!" Exclaimed McGonagall.

"It wasn't their fault, Professor—"

"That is enough from you, Miss Patil." Sneered Snape

"But Malfoy—"

"That's enough, Mr Weasley. Potter, both of you, follows me now." Professor McGonagall had turned upon saying this and started marching back towards the castle; Professor Snape followed her, and once he saw that the twins were following them he caught up with McGonagall so they were walking next to each other, and they had a hushed conversation that the twins couldn't hear.

As they passed the group Harriet spotted Draco, Crabbe and Goyle. Draco mouthed an apology to Harriet which she ignored and turned her head away from him if she was expelled she wasn't going to forgive Draco very easily. She knew it wasn't his entire fault but she felt she was justified in blaming him and in Harry's case it was mostly Draco's fault. Harriet and Harry walked in silence behind the two whispering professors who didn't even glance back at the twins. Through the castle they went.

As they progressed through the castle suddenly the two professors paused just long enough for instructions to the twins.

"Mr Potter, follow me." Instructed Professor McGonagall as she continued up the stairs.

"Miss Potter, if you would follow me." Stated Professor Snape as he turned away from the stairs and started along a corridor. Harriet hurried along after him until he stopped and opened an empty classroom door next to the Charms classroom. Harriet entered confused why they were not in Snape's classroom or office when the door slammed shut behind her and she turned to face Snape.

"Miss Potter what you did out there was irresponsible and dangerous. You could have seriously hurt yourself if not worse. I do not ever want to see you do anything that stupid again." Harriet hung her head as she was scolded. When she thought about it, she really was an idiot she hadn't even hovered under adult supervision and she went flying high in the air without so much as a second thought.

"Miss Potter, look at me when I'm talking to you." Harriet snapped her head up at the demand and Snape leaned closer to her, intimidating her. Though he soon straightened with an odd look on his face. He turned and walked towards the door. "You will wait here for me; I will not be gone long." And with that Professor Snape walked out into the corridor closing the door behind him.

Harriet stood awkwardly in the middle of the classroom and listened with all of her might for when Snape would come back. She didn't dare move as she thought she was in enough trouble as it was. She was just glad that she wasn't being expelled as Snape had said he never wanted to see her do anything like that again. So surely that meant she would be staying.

At that moment the door opened again. Harriet's heart as hammering against her chest wondering what punishment Snape had gone away to get for her. Snape came through the door and he was followed by a big burley boy who Harriet had seen in the Slytherin common room. The boy was looking at her with curiosity

"Miss Potter, usually I would have punished you for what you did today but seeing as your twin seems to be getting rewarded it seems only fair to acknowledge your skills and use them to our advantage. Mr Flint here is your new seeker."

"But, sir, we already have a seeker." The boy had clearly been taken by surprise as after he had said the words he closed his mouth and seemed to brace himself for a verbal backlash that was apparently common when someone spoke out of term to Snape.

"I am well aware of that; however, I am also aware that Mr Higgs has some concerns about his N.E.W.T.S and has been considering leaving the team. He can be a reserve if he wishes which will give him more time for his studies." Replied Snape a little icily. "Miss Potter, this is Marcus Flint the captain of the Slytherin Quidditch team." Who had evidently just noticed Harriet looking at Flint trying to work out why it was him that Snape had brought. Harriet was gobsmacked, was Snape putting her on the Quidditch team.

"Well as long as she is good on a broom and has a sharp eye I'm all for it. We don't usually have girls on the team though, but I suppose in the position of the seeker the lightness could be useful." Marcus flint was now scrutinising Harriet in a way that made her very uncomfortable and self-conscious. "She does look small enough for the seeker." Harriet had always been skinny and had always been a little defensive about how skinny she was. Though this boy was making it sound positive that for her being so skinny would be good for the team.

Snape hurried Flint out of the room and back to his classroom a couple of minutes later and came back to Harriet. "Now Miss Potter, I expect you to behave. I will not tolerate this kind of behaviour from you again without just reason let this be a warning to you. Now go get some homework done before dinner."

Harriet couldn't believe how lucky she had been not even to have gotten a detention or a punishment exercise. Though Harriet was stopped just as she was about to leave the room. "And Miss Potter, I would advise you not to mention the fact that you are on the team to anyone. Otherwise I might have to reconsider punishing you."

With a nod to the professor Harriet hurried off to the Slytherin common room. She had a couple of hours before dinner and she had had hardly slept last night because she was so nervous that and the other girls were up gossiping and whispering about who the hot guys in there year was. Harriet decided that she would go for a quick kip before dinner.

At dinner Harriet received a note from Flint telling her to go to the Quidditch field after dinner and he would introduce her to the rest of the team. This got Harriet so excited that she could barely sit still.

"What's with you?" asked Draco as he sat down next to Harriet a little more hesitantly than usual. This reminded Harriet of what Draco had done and decided that she would make him suffer a little.

"What's it to you? You didn't seem to care when you were throwing my things in the air." Gritted Harriet. She was usually laid back about things like that but not with her bracelet it was too valuable to her sentimentally. Any of her other possessions and she would have seen it as a bit of a joke or laugh and while she might not have been happy about it she wouldn't have held t against Draco this long.

"I'm sorry, Harriet; I didn't think you would take it this bad. I thought it would be fun for both of us. Like a game of catch and that it might break the ice a little." Harriet's temper flared.

"You have no idea do you, Malfoy, that bracelet is the only thing that I have that was bought for me by my birth parents. It's the only present they gave me that I have. This bracelet means the world to me. Nothing. And I mean absolutely nothing is as valuable to me as this bracelet is." Harriet had taken her bracelet off of her wrist and was shaking it at Malfoy to punctuate her point. Her voice rising unintentionally as she went without her realising until she was shouting. Harriet decided that she had had enough dinner and left the great hall and made her way to the Quidditch pitch. She never even noticed all of the stares that she was receiving as she left she was too angry with Draco.

Harriet knew that she was early, so she took her time wondering around the pitch inspecting everything. This was a great way for her to clear her head and calm down as well as familiarise herself with the pitch and it worked. Harriet felt herself under control after about ten minutes. And within another fifteen minutes the rest of the team had started to trickle onto the field. Eventually when everyone except flint was there one of the boys called over to Harriet. Who ran up to the group of boys.

"You're going to have to leave now. We're having a Quidditch practise and our captain will be here any moment." Said one of the boys not unkindly

"Yeah, I know I'm here for the practice as well." Replied Harriet.

"Hey, we have a chancer here." Laughed another boy.

"I'm the new team member," insisted Harriet. "The old seeker is being changed to a reserve and I'm his replacement." Harriet tried to explain to the older boys.

"Hey, don't be so cheeky." Sneered another boy. "They're no way they are chucking me out of the team. I'm not the kind of person that can just be chucked out with the rubbish." Harriet just huffed at this.

"Well, I'll leave you to suss out* what being a reserve means." Harriet said not wanting to waste her time any more than what she already had explaining to the boy that he wasn't being chucked off the team that he was just being made a reserve instead of the main seeker. At that moment Flint appeared.

"All right guys I see you've already meat Harriet. She's going to be our new seeker as long as she is as good as Snape seems to think she is." Said flint Harriet had to try not to laugh out loud at the looks of shock of varying degrees on the faces of all the team members.

"But she's a first year!" Exclaimed Higgs

"First year or not Snape has given her permission to be on the team and I want to give her a few tests." Said Flint, he seemed a bit doubtful that she was as good as Snape said she was. "Now since it would be unfair to have he compete on a school broom whilst Higgs has his own I've looked out two of the best school brooms I could find of the same make." Started flint and he handed Harriet and Terence Higgs a broom each.

Then he instructed the others to practice dodging the quaffle as the two beaters passed to each other from opposite ends of the pitch. And flint turned his attention back to Higgs and Harriet. Alright we are going to start simple since Snape told me that that was the first time you had been on a broom, Potter." Higgs looked pleased with this no doubt thinking that if Harriet had only been on the broom once before in her life then he was bound to be able to easily beat her in whatever challenge they were given.

"I want you to both race each other close to the ground as I don't want you disrupting the other's practice." With the first task explained the two seekers mounted their brooms side by side facing the opposite end of the pitch.

They were going to race to the other end touch the wall and race back. The first to touch Flint would win that challenge. Harriet braced herself until the whistle blew and Harriet took off. Her take off was a little slower than Higgs was, but she persevered. Harriet pushed the broom as fast as it would go and soon found herself neck and neck with Higgs. She urged the broom forward with all of her will they were almost at the wall now.

The closer they got to the wall the more Harriet settled into the broom. She reached out her hand sort of spun the broom around and she used her feet swimmer style to push the broom in the opposite direction again gaining the lead on Higgs. Harriet was keeping herself low to the broom, her long copper hair flying out like a cape behind her.

This felt so natural and the competitive nature of the race just made it all that more exciting to Harriet. All too soon Harriet was back at Flint and as he stuck his hand out as she approached Harriet too raised her hand and slapped his as she passed slowing to a stop. Ever since the wall Harriet had forgotten all about Higgs and whither he was ahead or behind her. She turned to see him next to Flint.

**Court2010: Suss out means to judge someone, to check them out.


	24. Chapter 24

Thank you to my 2 amazing beta's court2010 and lovegoodpotter; you two are amazing.

I do not own harry potter

**Chapter 24**

Harriet looked back turned her broom around and approached Flint and Higgs. When she got to them she noticed that Higgs was scowling and Flint looked unnerved.

"You beat Higgs by ten seconds." Flint told Harriet, Harriet was chuffed with herself and the feeling didn't go away when she realised that she was the reason Higgs didn't look to happy. "Alright, now for your next task. I have an ordinary golden wonder apple her. I'm going to blindfold the both of you and then I'll throw the apple, as soon as I take the blindfold off of you need to find the apple and catch it before the other seeker. Okay. Good. Occulto suum os."

Harriet felt something covering her eyes. When she raised her hand there was nothing there, yet the spell had done the job as she couldn't see a thing. Harriet gripped her broom ready to go as soon as she could see again. Then she heard flint mutter the counter. "Reverto os"

Harriet could see again. She looked around her for any kind of falling item. She saw the apple off to her left it was just at the peak of the arch before it started to fall towards the ground. Harriet kicked off the ground and zoomed towards the apple. Catching it just before it hit the ground. She looked behind her and had to quickly dodge as Higgs who had set off in the same direction as her when she had spotted the apple almost collided with her. Harriet paused to make sure that Higgs was okay and took off back towards Flint.

"Here's the apple," Harriet said as she handed the apple to a surprised Flint.

"Alright then. The final challenge." Flint acknowledged as he called Higgs over to them. "We are going to go up above all the other players; I'll blindfold you again and through a crab apple this time it is smaller and about the same size as the snitch. It will be more like in the matches. Everything else will be the same as before." With that Flint got on his broom and took off into the air Harriet and Higgs followed him. They were way above all the other players now who were starting to lose concentration and watching the on goings between their captain and the two seekers.

Flint blindfolded the two again and then a second later he removed the blindfold. Harriet looked all around, though this time it was Higgs who saw the apple first he shot off after it, Harriet took off hardly a second after him. She looked ahead and saw the apple Higgs wasn't diving deeply enough she noticed. She adjusted her own dive and leaned almost flat against the handle of her broom. She rocketed towards the ground at a breakneck speed.

When she reached out to get the apple which landed in her hand. Harriet managed to just pull up in time to prevent a crash however she did lose her balance and the last small distance to the ground. She stood up rubbing her elbow then started wiping the grass away from the graze on her palm. Flint who had thought she was going to crash when he saw that she hadn't pulled up sooner was by her side in an instant. He didn't think Snape would be too happy if Harriet had got hurt since he seemed to have taken a liking to this first year.

Flint reached out to take Harriet's hand to investigate the graze though Harriet had misinterpreted his action gave him the crab apple instead. Flint looked at it then threw the crab apple away and took Harriet's hand and looked at the graze.

"That was a little reckless of you." He commented. "I can't heal this though I can clean it up a little. The usual cleaning charm will sting the cut but I know another one that will sterilise it until it can be cleaned properly." Said Flint as he took his wand out and gently tapped her injured palm with it. "Infecunditas." Harriet felt coolness go over her palm.

"Could you teach me that?" asked Harriet. "Do you know any other useful spells that you can teach me as well?"

"A keen one, aren't you. Yeah, I could teach you a few spells. It's really useful when playing Quidditch to know some basic first aid spells." Laughed the captain. "I think it is safe to say that you have got the spot as the main seeker on the team. You just need to learn your limits to stop yourself from getting hurt. You sure do have a lot of raw talent." Added Flint. Harriet beamed at him. Flint took the broom from her and sent her away to get her palm sorted out.

Harriet practically skipped back to the dungeons. She didn't see the point in going to the hospital wing over a grazed palm; she had had plenty of them as she was growing up. It would heal in no time as long as she kept it clean. When she entered the common room she spotted Draco which took the smile off her face. She decided to play with Draco's mind a little to get him back. She thought about what she would feel if Higgs had beaten her at all the challenges that flint set her. It must have worked because when Draco spotted her as she walked towards the girl's dorm he immediately stood up and went over to her.

"Harriet are you alright? What did McGonagall and Snape say to you?"

"I don't want to talk to you Draco," said Harriet fiercely "I'm just going to get my stuff, bye Draco." Said Harriet and took off into the dorm. What she had said was true she didn't want to talk to Draco at the moment, and she was just going to get her stuff, but what Draco didn't know was that the stuff she was going to get was her homework, and she didn't plan on seeing Draco for the rest of the night so bye was appropriate. Harriet went her dorm and decided to tidy her things up. She was just putting some textbooks that she wouldn't need until next week into her trunk when Pansy Parkenson came in to the dorm.

"It's true then!" exclaimed Pansy and she left the dorm before Harriet had a chance to say anything to her. Harriet shrugged. She finished off tidying her area and made sure nothing was lying around, and looked around. The cat carrier was still on her chair she was supposed to take it to a storage room for the cages of all the students' pets.

Harriet felt a little light bulb flick on as she realised that Sammy wasn't in the Slytherin dorm, she picked up the cat carry case and put her homework under the blanket so she could leave the common room without Draco noticing her homework and giving the whole thing away. Satisfied that the homework was completely hidden, Harriet left the dorm once again thinking about if she had been beaten by Higgs. As soon as she got out into the common room Draco was upon her.

"You've been expelled because of me haven't you?" Asked Draco. Harriet just ignored him and made her way to the exit. "Harriet, I'm sorry; I didn't think they would actually expel you." Rushed Draco as he tried to stop Harriet from leaving."

"Draco, let go I've got things I need to do." Hissed Harriet as she noticed that some people were beginning to watch their exchange. The hurt and defeated look on Draco's face almost made Harriet give up her plan and tell him that she wasn't expelled. But then she remembered that Harry could be in a lot of trouble as well and that it was Draco who had stopped her from trying to help Neville and she became more determined to keep it going until breakfast at least. Harriet pulled her arm from Draco's and left to go find the store for Sammy's basket.

After Harriet had deposited the carry cage safely into the storage room and took her homework out she made her way to the library were Hermione was sitting. As soon as Harriet sat down next to her she started asking questions.

"What happened? How much trouble did you get in?"

"Shh, I'm not in trouble, you've got to promise not to say a word of this to anyone not even Harry."

"I promise. What happened?" The two girls whispered as Harriet told Hermione about what happed. She then proceeded to tell Hermione about what she was doing to Draco."

"Isn't that a bit mean. He was only trying to stop you from getting hurt." Hermione was not very happy about what Harriet was doing.

"Well, technically I never lied to him, and he did more than that he took my bracelet as well and threw it fifty feet in the air." Insisted Harriet. Hermione noticed Harriet's involuntary hold on her bracelet as if making sure it was still there and safe.

"That bracelet means a lot to you doesn't it." Asked Hermione softly.

"Yeah it does, it was the only thing that I had for years that really connected me to my birth family." Harriet was now looking down fondly at her bracelet. "I mean I have a baby book that my birth parents had made and my mum and dad finished filling it in, there are pictures of them in it. But it could have been any baby in those photos. This bracelet really proves that it was me in those pictures more than anything else."

Harriet hesitated at this point wondering if she should tell Hermione or not. She decided that she would after all Hermione might be able to help her figure it out. "On my eleventh birthday. The half disk on this bracelet glowed." Started Harriet, she pointed out the half disk that had her name inscribed on it with half of her surname.

Then she continued "Then I had a kind of vision of Harry; he was lying on a floor with a thin blanket and it was story outside and the shack they were in seemed old and full of draughts. It looked like the middle of the night, so I don't know if it was real or not and maybe a flashback but of Harry's experience. Or it could have been my imagination since I know that Harry didn't sleep in the floor at home and the house he stays in is a nice house even if he isn't treated that well at home."

Hermione replied, "I think the only way you will ever really be able to know would be if you asked Harry. All that we can do is speculate until then." Harriet nodded and turned to her homework and Hermione turned to hers.


	25. Chapter 25

Thank you again court2010 and lovegoodpotter. I know I've kind of thrown a lot of chapters at you both recently.

I do not own Harry Potter.

**Chapter 25**

Harriet was pleased when she managed to sneak into her dorm the night before without Draco or any of the other Slytherins noticing her. When she had woken up that morning Harriet made sure to take her time getting ready before she finally had to leave for breakfast. Though she was surprised to find Draco still sleeping on a chair by the common room entrance. She slipped past him unnoticed and headed down to breakfast.

Harriet was sitting at the end of the breakfast table on her own watching absentmindedly Harry and Ron at the Gryffindor table. Hermione wasn't too far away from them. Harriet felt sorry for Hermione and wished that Harry and Ron would just give her a chance Harriet was positive that they would all get on really well.

Then Draco came in; he spotted Harry and Ron at the Gryffindor table almost at once. And couldn't seem to believe his eyes. When Draco saw the boys still there he instantly looked along the Slytherin table for Harriet. He found her and he looked at her for a moment before heading over towards her and sitting down next to her.

"I thought you had been expelled." It wasn't so much of a question as a statement. However Harriet could also notice the pain in there that so few others ever heard. Draco was genuinely sorry for what he had done.

"Well, I had to get back at you some way didn't I?" She wasn't unkind about it but it showed Draco that he wasn't getting off lightly either.

"Yeah, I'll admit I did deserve it. I was being a twat*."

"Yeah, you can say that again." replied Harriet. She actually hadn't expected Draco to apologise and especially not so quickly. She briefly wondered if that was why he had slept in the chair last night. So she decided to ask him. "I noticed you were asleep in a chair in the common room this morning?"

"I was waiting for you to come back, though I must have missed you. When did you get back anyway?"

"About half an hour before curfew. Why did you wait for me, even though you knew that I probably wouldn't talk to you?" Asked Harriet.

"I had to try, you're the best friend I have, and if you had been expelled then I couldn't have let you leave without at least trying to apologise and tell you how sorry I was." From the moment that Harriet had heard Draco say that she was the best friend that he had her mouth was opened in shock. She had thought that Crabbe and Goyle were his best friends. She had defiantly considered him one of her closest friends and she spent more time with him than she did any of her other friends.

"What did I say something wrong?" asked Draco he was looking nervous now.

"No, it's just I've never had a best friend before and I thought Crabbe and Goyle were yours." Replied Harriet, she was blushing now, it seemed stupid of her not to have consider that Draco might think of her as a best friend, but she really didn't know if boys minds worked the same way as girls when it came to best friends. Draco had a slight pink tinge to his cheeks now as well.

"Well, I just assumed, I mean if you don't want to then I'll understand." Draco rushed.

"No, wait, I want to be best friends. Though…" Harriet trailed off.

"What. You can tell me."

"Is it okay if I keep a best friend space open for Hermione as well? No wait. It's just that she has no one except from me and maybe Neville I don't know if they talk at all in the Gryffindor common room or just when I'm there to initiate any conversations between them." Harriet could feel herself starting to get off the topic, so she closed her mouth and waited for Draco to say something. Draco was smiling.

"Of course, you can have more than one best friend you know." Draco smirked a little at Harriet. "And besides I wouldn't expect anything less from you." Harriet gave a small laugh and pushed Draco's arm. Then turned back to her breakfast. Draco just smiled at her and served himself some cereal.

Harriet and Draco both left together for double potions first thing. As soon as Harriet saw Hermione standing along her rushed over to her. Both the girls were surprised when Draco left Crabbe and Goyle, and approached both of them and started hanging out and even joining in with their conversations. What Harriet was most surprised at was Draco was nice to Hermione. He didn't utter a single uncivil word to her.

When Snape let them into the dungeons he too was surprised though he didn't show it. Harriet and Hermione sat in their usual seats and Draco and Crabbe sat down at the table next to theirs. Harry and Ron were also at tables nearby and didn't seem particularly happy with the new seating arrangements.

It wasn't just Potions either. Draco seemed to be making an effort to show Harriet exactly how much their friendship meant to him by leaving Crabbe and Goyle and by sitting next to Harriet in Herbology as well despite the presence of Mandy, Morag and Michael as well. Harriet was touched by what Draco was doing, and she liked having him there but she was also worried that Draco was ditching his friends so often. She didn't want Draco to be left friendless if for whatever reason they were to fall out. She didn't think she would be able to live with that guilt. So Harriet pulled Draco to the side after class to have a word with him.

"Draco, I'm touched with what you are doing, and I'm happy to be spending more time with you, but I'm worried that you're going to start neglecting your other friends." Explained Harriet in a gentle tone. She didn't want to offend Draco or give him the idea that she didn't want him around because that wasn't true she was looking out for his best interests.

"What do you mean I spend plenty of time with Crabbe and Goyle?" Harriet could hear the defensiveness creeping into Draco's tone.

"I know you do. But you haven't spent any time with them today and I don't want you to lose their friendship. I'm happy to for us all to hang out together. I just didn't want you to neglect them in case we stopped being friends for some reason. I don't want you to be left alone without any other friends." She could see Draco start to soften his posture he was becoming less defensive now.

"All right I understand. So I can still spend more time with you?" Draco looked so hopeful that Harriet had to laugh as she answered.

"Of course, you can." Then Harriet took them both by surprise and gave Draco a hug. She felt him stiffen for a second then he relaxed and she felt his arms wrap around her as well as he returned the hug. "I'm glad you understand." Harriet whispered into his ear. Then they pulled away from each other and headed up towards the castle to get cleaned up before dinner.

After dinner Harriet tried out the new relationship with Draco and asked him if he wanted to go with her to do some homework in the library with Hermione. Draco agreed though he did wonder how Harriet knew that Hermione would be in the library.

"It's simple," explained Harriet. "Hermione is always in the library. There is no one in the Gryffindor house that will talk to her so she goes where other can talk to her if they want to and where she can keep herself busy if no one does want to talk to her."

"So that's why she is the top of every class. Because she has no friends she spends all of her time studying." Theorised Draco.

"Erm, not exactly I have a feeling Hermione would be the top of her class regardless of if she had friends or not in her own house. She has the work motive and already had her books all memorised before getting on the Hogwarts express. I think she has mainly been studying other things such as wizard culture and history. The sort of things that people who grew up in the wizarding world would already know."

Draco nodded as he thought through what Harriet had said. "Actually a lot of the things she has found out have actually been quite useful. It has helped me when around you for example; it helps me to understand how you act sometimes. "Harriet went on. At the look of complete shock on Draco's face Harriet smirked. "What you thought you were acting perfectly around me?" mocked Harriet.

"No, I mean yes; I thought I had managed to stop pointing out my pure blood status." Murmured Draco as they turned a corner.

"Well, you're not quite there yet. It's just small things like the way you seem to take note of a person's surname when you first hear it as if you are noting if it's a wizards surname. Small things but I believe you'll overcome that with time." Their conversation was cut short there as they ran into peeves as they turned into another corridor.

"Ickle wee firs ties out on their own. Not lost are you?" Hollered Peeves as he picked up a nearby bin and threw it over Draco's head. He was picking up some chalk when Harriet grabbed Draco's hand and pulled him along the corridor; Draco unable to see anything with the bin still covering his eyes he was just trying not to trip. There was a split in the corridor and a broom cupboard, Harriet pulled the bin off of Draco's head and threw it down on of the corridors and pulled Draco into the broom cupboard to hide from Peeves. He went bouncing along the corridor in the direction of the bin thinking that the first years had dropped the bin as they ran down the corridor.

"I think he's gone," whispered Harriet who had had her ear pressed against the door listening to Peeves' shouts getting further and further away.

"Why is it we always seem to end up in a broom cupboard together?" asked Draco with a smirk.

"Oh, shut up, Draco." Exclaimed Harriet as she pushed him gently and made her way out of the broom cupboard and down the opposite corridor from the one they had sent peeves down. It had been a good pit of quick thinking she had done to throw it in the opposite direction from the library otherwise they would have had a lot more trouble from peeves than they did have. It was only a couple of minutes later that they joined Hermione at her usual table in the library.

"Hi, Hermione; Draco decided to join us I hope that's ok." Greeted Harriet as her and Draco took seats at the table.

"Yeah, of course, that's fine." Said Hermione distractedly as she took a note of something from a book. Then Hermione seemed to think of something. "Actually, Draco, if you don't mind could I ask you some questions about the British wizarding lifestyle?" Asked Hermione, she looked excited and her eyes sparkled like they always did at the prospect of learning something new.

"Of course." Said Draco a little put out at her directness. Harriet blocked the pair out as they started their discussion. Instead Harriet got out the last of her homework that she had been given that week which was professor Snape's essay on the properties of the ingredients they had used that day in their potion for clearing hiccups.

_American Annotations _

_**Overseas, the name twat is just a name to call someone. It doesn't carry any sexual meaning as it does here, in the USA. _


	26. Chapter 26

I would like to thank Jess and Courtney for being my beta's and brill friends.

I do not own Harry Potter.

Chapter 26

It wasn't until that weekend that Harriet found out about Draco setting up Harry and Ron for a midnight duel and Hermione and Neville getting caught up in all the commotion as well. It was lucky that they had never got caught. All the same Harriet was yet again not very happy with Draco despite their new best friend status. The only thing that had stopped Harriet from marching away from Harry the moment he told her to find Draco and give him a piece of her mind was because Draco had been making such an effort in the past days to keep on Harriet's good side.

Harriet often found herself with Draco, Crabbe and Goyle at meals and in classes and whilst Harriet would still insist on sitting with the friends she had made in the different classes she was happy that Draco was keeping things civil around her friends. She had only had to throw the occasional look at Draco before he was apologising or changing the rout of the conversation to something that would cause less slips from him and was more neutral ground for those who did not share the same views that he had grown up to believe in.

So on Saturday instead of storming off to yell at Draco, Harriet instead enjoyed the day with Harry. They were our roaming around the grounds looking for a place where they could hide from the masses that only the pair of them knew about when Harriet spotted Draco Crabbe and Goyle out of the corner of her eye heading towards them. Harriet grabbed Harry's wrist and pointed over to Draco.

"What is he doing here?" Harry clearly wasn't in the mood to deal with Draco today, and Harriet really couldn't blame him as she wasn't in the mood with Draco either; she would much rather deal with him that night when she had had time to calm down a little from him trying to get her twin expelled. Harriet looked around desperately and spotted behind a tree a small alcove that was in the side of a rock. She was surprised that she had spotted it because she was sure that Harry and she had already walked passed that spot several times that morning in their hunt for a den. Deciding not to hesitate, Harriet who was still holding Harry's wrist, motioned for him to be quiet and waited until all three of the boys who were heading in their direction were looking in the opposite direction.

Harriet seized her chance and dragged Harry as fast as she could over to the alcove and out of site. Harriet spotted a conveniently placed hole about the size of a fisted hand which looked over the grounds and up towards the castle. It was the perfect peek hole and she took up position behind it and peered out watching as the three boys turned back around and stopped as they realised that Harriet and Harry had vanished from where they were just a moment ago. Harriet could see Draco's frustrated gestures and could help but giggle glad that the boys were still too far away to hear. Harry came up behind Harriet and saw the little peephole looked around and saw a similar one higher up. He looked around and saw a couple of fairly large stones just outside the entrance.

"Tell me when they are not looking so that I can bring those stones in." Harriet nodded and a moment later gave harry the go ahead. Harry managed to bring in the flatter of the two in and placed it on the ground underneath the higher peep hole, however when he went back to get the larger one it was too big for him to lift and was almost sighted by Draco when Harriet dragged him back inside. A few moments later Draco had apparently given up and he Crabbe and Goyle entered back into the castle. Once they were gone Harriet and Harry both went over and tried to lift the large stone but again it was too heavy even for the two of them, then Harriet had an idea."

"OK, I'm not sure if this will work, but Hermione and I have been practising ahead of the lessons and we can manage the levitation spell on quills. Let's just try and see if I can manage on something so heavy before I tell you my plan." And with Harry's nod of consent Harriet took out her wand and cast the spell. The stone wobbled a little before slowly raising three feet in the air Harriet held it for a couple of minutes just to make sure then she slowly lowered the stone back to the ground with her face flushed with pride.

"Well done, Harriet!" Exclaimed Harry as he gave her a hug.

"OK. So here's the plan; I'll make the stone levitate and you push it and guide it over to the place that you want it then if you nod your head I'll lower it."

"That sounds like a good plan." So the two children perform the plan and both are really surprised when it works without a fault. Harry got up onto the stones which were now set with the larger one on top of the flatter one which provided steps that when harry stood onto with Harriet holding her hands up ready to catch Harry if the stones wobbled or were unsteady and Harry fell. Harry was now able to look out of the higher of the peepholes if he stood on his tip toes and the stones were steady and unmoving.

It was only when Harry came back down from the stones that the two children looked around properly. They found that they were not in an alcove as they had thought they were actually in a cave. They had a good look around and discovered that there were a couple of small indents in the stone walls that could be used as shelves and when they went back outside they found that the rock that they were in was more like a hollowed out rock than anything else. The entrance was almost invisible unless you were at a certain angle between the trees that covered the entrance and was looking closely at the surroundings. All in all it was the perfect den. The twins had their place that they could go to, if they ever needed space to themselves or to hide from people in general or even if they just wanted to spend some quality time together without being interrupted.

The twins only ventured out of their den to get food from the Great Hall at lunch time they didn't even eat at the table they simply took a large supply of food and after wrapping it up they hid the food in their bags and headed to the library and got out a couple of books on household charms.

When they were safely back in their den and had eaten some of the food they had brought with them from the great hall for their lunch they lay down their cloaks on the floor and each opened up the household charms books and started reading and alerting the other to a charm they thought would be useful and trying it out on their surroundings. They spent all afternoon in the den and by the evening they had managed to clean up the den, set stasis charms on the food that they had brought and even cover a few of the holes in the rock with a bubble charm which was much more advanced than they were expected to be able to do in their first year.

That night Harriet said goodnight to Harry as he walked up the marble staircase towards the Gryffindor tower and Harriet turned and headed towards her own common room. However her good mood did not last long as when she entered the common room and saw Draco sitting in the chair closest to the entrance; she remembered what he had tried to do to Harry and her other friends. Harriet huffed and tried walking past Draco towards the girls' dorms but Draco stopped her.

"Harriet, wait." He stood and hurried over towards her. "I was looking for you today where were you?"

"Draco, I do not need to be with you every single day, do I?" Harriet could feel her temper rising, and found herself thinking that she seemed to be losing her temper a lot since she entered the magical world. "I am allowed to spend a day with other people without you a couple of days a week? Unless I have completely misunderstood the terms and conditions of friendships." Spat Harriet; Draco took a step back in surprise at her tone and seemed not to be able to hide the hurt tone in his voice as effectively as he had hoped when he replied.

"Of course, you are allowed time without me I just thought it would be good if we hung out since we have no classes and don't have any homework to do." Then Draco tried to redeem himself for showing any sign of weakness. "Of course, since you were with Potter I didn't particularly want to be around you anyway today."

"I am a Potter, as you seem to have forgotten." Hissed Harriet as she spun on the spot and made her way to her dorm. Draco tried to follow calling out to her to stop but as he approached the girls' dorms a large bubble appeared in the corridor preventing anyone from getting closer to the girls dorms. Draco punched the bubble in his frustration and turned back to the common room.

Harriet meanwhile was in her dorm taking deep breaths trying to calm down. She didn't like being mad at Draco and especially since she hadn't got around to telling him why she was really angry at him. Harriet walked over to her bed and pulled some parchment, ink and a quill out of her trunk and wrote a letter to Draco explaining the real reason that she was so angry at him and just basically venting all of her frustration and anger out onto the parchment. She certainly wasn't going to send the letter. It just helped to be able to get her thought out onto a piece of paper were she could see them and therefore organise them in her mind more effectively, she had always done it like this ever since she could write it saved her from hurting people's feelings and allowed her to calm down and put some perspective to the things going around in her head.

Harriet finished her letter and folded it over and stuffed it into an envelope. She had forgotten to bring her large envelope from home that had all of her previous letters in it. Harriet then proceeded to take out another piece of parchment and wrote a genuine letter to Draco which she intended to give it to him this way she wouldn't get side-tracked or annoyed at anything else and Draco would know what was really annoying her. Upon finishing the letter she tossed it onto her bed and when she saw how Sammy slink into the room and sat for a while just petting him and talking to him.

Harriet then realised how late it was and crawled into bed with Sammy snuggling between her arms. Harriet was asleep before she remembered to remove the letter from her bed and as she slept a single movement of her leg as she slept sent the letter fluttering down to the floor just under the bed. Harriet slept on peacefully, confident that she would be giving the letter will be given to Draco in the morning, and he will realise why she was angry and all will be well between them again.

**I know some parts seem a little unrealistic with the den but it is explained in the next chapter. I hope that you enjoyed and hopefully I won't be as long updating the next chapter.**


	27. Chapter 27

**A/N I'm not even going to make excuses why this chapter is so late. So I'm sorry it's late **

**Thank you to my two amazingly patient beta's Courtney and Jess. Jess, I will get some work done today… Maybe.**

**Chapter 27**

Harriet woke up the next morning feeling nice and refreshed and ready to confront the day she got up and ready and then remembered about the letters she wrote. As she looked around she could only see one of the letters which she thought was odd. She was sure that the letter on her bedside table was the one she had wrote to vent her feelings but she decided to open it just to make sure.

It still was the venting letter she stuffed the letter back inside the envelope and sat it back on the table and searched furiously for the proper letter to Draco.

What Harriet had not taken into account was that Samuel was in a particularly mischievous mood that morning and he decided he wanted to play with the envelope. Whilst Harriet had her back turned he leaped up and got the envelope and was happily playing with it on the floor when Harriet noticed what he had done.

"Sammy, no; you can't play with that." Harriet bent down and took the envelope off of Samuel and put it back on her bedside table. "You'll need to find something else to play with, okay?" Harriet bent down and gave Samuel a tickle under his chin before getting back to her search.

Sammy however did not want to play with anything else so when Harriet was rummaging through her trunk in her search, he once again leaped up onto the table and took the letter. This time however he did not wait around he dashed out of the room and into the common room tripping slightly as he went. In the hopes that Harriet would not catch him out again.

Harriet was still completely oblivious to Sammy's naughtiness as she got down on her hands and knees to look under her bed. With a cry of triumph she rose up again with the letter in her hand. Harriet placed the letter back on the bed and straightened her cloths and bed before gathering the letter and leaving the room for the owlery. She didn't even notice Sammy playing under the table in the corner of the common room as she passed through.

Harriet made it to the owlery with no problems and was back in the great hall eating her breakfast before she met anyone. She caught Harry's eye from across the hall and pointed to him and herself then out in the direction their den was. Harry nodded in the affirmative and the twins went back to eating their breakfast.

It was only when Harriet had gone back to her dorm room that she noticed something was amiss.

"Sammy!" She yelled as she ran down to the common room in search of the naughty kitten. What she saw froze her in her step. Draco was kneeling down next to Sammy holding the letter in his hand.

"Oh, God," She mumbled to herself hoping desperately that Draco had not read the letter. "Draco, hi, could I get that letter, please? Sammy was being bad and it wasn't supposed to leave my dorm." She held out her hand for the letter hoping that Draco would just give it to her. Draco just blinked in surprise before shaking his head slightly to clear his thoughts.

"Yeah, sure." He handed Harriet the letter. "So erm… do you want to hang out today?" He sounded uncertain. Harriet gave him a searching look before she replied.

"Draco, I would but Harry and I have already made plans today…" She trailed off hating the hurt and lost look on Draco's face. "Maybe after dinner though?" She added on hastily hoping not to hurt his feelings too much. Draco visibly brightened up at this suggestion.

"Yeah, okay then; I can do that." Draco started walking out of the common room door, "I'll see you at dinner then." He called over his shoulder before he left the common room.

Harriet looked down at the naughty kitten by her side and shook her head, "Now THAT was a close call. Sammy, you could have caused so much trouble between us." Harriet picked up the kitten and gave him a quick hug before setting off back to her dorm to make sure that she put the letter away in a safe place where naughty little kittens could not get to it.

Harriet met Harry in the main entrance soon after that and they both left the castle together and made their way down to their den. They were filled with thought of what they could do in the den that day and in days still to come. Upon entering the den they were happy to find that it was still as they had left it. They wondered over and checked over all the parts that they had worked on the day before and smiled at each other before they both took off their cloaks and wandered over to the far side of the den. This part they had not had the time to clean and fix up yesterday.

"Looks like we don't have much left to do we should be finished by lunch time." Stated Harriet smiling.

"Yeah, and then we can start hanging out and doing research on our family and everything here." Smiled Harry with excitement.

They got to work using bubble charms in any gabs in the stone and using various cleaning charms which they had learned from the household spells book. They had been working away in silence for around half an hour before a gasp punctuated the air.

Harriet spun around thinking that someone had stumbled in on their den. It took her a couple of seconds to realise that the gasp had in fact come from Harry. She hurried over to him.

"What is it, Harry?" She asked concern lacing her tone.

"Look." Was all that Harry said and he pointed into one of the little mini alcoves that they were using as shelves. Harriet edged over and glanced into the alcove warily not knowing what to expect. She certainly wasn't expecting what was in there that was for sure.

Harriet edged closer to the alcove and lit her wand to shine the light inside to see better with. Inside was a little bronze plaque which had writing inscribed on its surface. Harriet leaned closer and read what was inscribed out loud.

"Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff,

Rowena Ravenclaw and Salazar Slytherin.

The founders and creators of Hogwarts.

Herby declare this experimental room

A success.

This room will take on the form of any required

And is purely experimental. Whilst the room will not

Be perfect it will be with a little work from the persons

Who imagined the room into existence."

Harriet looked up at harry her green eyes dancing with wonder. She was hardly able to believe what she had just read. If this room was created by the founders then what was it doing in the forest? Was there a reason that it was in a place where students were not supposed to go? But then surely if students were not supposed to find it then it would not be so close to the forest edge. Harriet had about a million questions spinning around in her head.

"Harry?" Harriet turned around and met the gaze of harry "Does this mean that our den is not really going to stay this way?"

"I honestly don't know, Harriet. Maybe we should look careful around to see if there are any more plaques." Suggested Harry as saw Harriet looked uneasy and a little upset at the prospect of losing the place they had both grown attached to so quickly as they had worked so hard on it.

They both split up again and started searching every nook and cranny they could find before coming back to their cloaks and sitting down in the centre of the floor.

"There's nothing else" exclaimed Harriet in frustration. All she wanted now was to find some answers. Harry signed beside her.

"I know surely there must be some way to find out. Should we have some lunch before continuing with the cleaning?" Harry was hesitant but he figured that if their den was still here this morning when they had come back to it then surely they will be able to get it again in the future. Harriet nodded and went to get up to prepare something for them for lunch. Harry meanwhile wandered over to where they had stored their stash of pumpkin juice.

They were sitting having their lunch contemplating what they should do now they had almost completely cleaned out their den when harry leaned back on had hands and gave another gasp. Harriet instantly was on alert again.

"What have you found?" She asked. And then she looked where Harry was looking and gave a small gasp herself. What they were looking at was a book floating in the air above their heads in an indent in the ceiling its cover was almost exactly the same colour as the stone around it and it was almost flush with the ceiling as it stayed in the spherical indent in the stone.

"How do we get it down?" Asked Harriet. She looked around her in vane looking for something to stand on that was tall enough for her or harry to reach it.

"How about if I go back up to the castle I'm pretty sure I say step ladder in one of the broom cupboards on the first floor that I opened when trying to find class." Suggested Harry he was thinking hard. "You stay here that way we will know that the room won't disappear before we get back." Harriet nodded her agreement seeing the sense in this plan. Harry got up off the floor and hurried off.

Harriet viewed the book with an increased sense of curiosity but also wariness. She quickly got up to her feet and took a step to the side just in case the book decided to suddenly fall onto of her. She decided to clear up the remainders of their lunch whilst she waited on Harry and was just putting away the last cup with a wave of her wand and an incantation to clean the cup out when Harry struggled back in carrying a step ladder.

Harriet rushed over to help him with it and the twins both managed to pull the ladder in and set it up underneath the book. At first they thought the ladder was going to be too short but when Harry stepped on the ladder it started to grow so that it was the perfect size for harry to climb up and reach the book from the top of the ladder with Harriet holding the bottom of the ladder in case it fell. Something she had often had to do for her mum when she was helping with the spring cleaning or putting up Christmas decorations.

Harry had a little difficulty persuading the book to come down. But when he had it tucked it securely beneath his arm and made his way back down the ladder. The twins folded down the ladder and placed it next to the entrance before they both approached the centre of the room again and sitting back down on the cloaks placing the book between them. There was not writing on the book at all. No title no author and no description of what was inside the book. The book was about a foot and a half tall and about a foot wide. It was also about four inches thick making it the largest book Harriet had ever actually wanted to read.

Harriet reached out her hand to touch the book and was surprised at how soft and smooth it felt if the cover felt how it looked she thought then it should have felt rough and hard like the stone on the walls around them. Harry opened up the book and the twins both let out a gasp.


	28. Chapter 28

A/N: Ok, so I know that was mean leaving that last chapter the way it was, so I'm sorry, but here is the next chapter I promise this one will not be a cliffy :D

Thank you to my two beta's Courtney and Jess, I know I should be doing my international study tour project but you know me… I had to pack…and play with Jess's dissertation rats…and write this :]

I do not own Harry Potter.

Chapter 28

Harriet and Harry looked down onto the page in surprise. This was just too convenient, too good to be true the blank cover of the book was almost the complete opposite to what was written inside the book as what the twins could only assume was the books title.

"The Book of Answers," Harriet read aloud. How could a book that was completely blank on the outside and gave nothing away until it was opened be a book of answers? And what sort of answers did the book hold?

Harriet slowly reached out her hand and traced the lettering with her finger gently as she pondered these questions. She slowly ghosted her fingers over the page moving closer and closer to the edge of the page. When she got to the edge of the page she separated the first page from the rest and turned it over. The next page was an explanation of how to use the book. As Harriet read the page she quickly gathered that what they needed to do to use the book was to write the question on the left hand page of the book and the writing would turn to text and the answer to the question would appear on the right hand page. This was too much for Harriet. After all what was she expected to do when she suddenly found out that any question she ever had in the world she could get the answer to without having to go through half the books in the library to find that answer.

If what the book implied was true then the twins would never have to be confused again they could simply clarify anything with a written question in this very book.

Harriet pushed the book over to Harry and stood up and walked to the edge of the cave to get some fresh air. She couldn't keep up with her thoughts. There was so much racing though her mind at that moment. They would be able to find out about their family. They would be able to find out about ANYTHING they could even think of asking.

Harriet was excited about the reality of the situation that she and harry had found themselves in. but then Harriet also had a nagging thought in the back of her mind. Well it was more like several nagging thoughts. Was this moral? Is it right having access to all the information in the world with a simple sentence to ask the question? Should they use the book? What if they went down the road of asking questions about the people around them? Removing their friend's privacy and right to keep secrets about their very lives…

And what if this book was found by someone else? Someone who perhaps didn't think about morals or who wouldn't think twice about using the book to get information that could hurt someone or cause serious harm to the world, government or people around them?

Harriet couldn't let this happen. She would have to do anything within her power to protect the book and make sure that her and Harry did not use it in the wrong way.

However was it wrong for them to use the book simply to get questions about the world around them? Like asking about the very room that they were in at that moment? The very room that they found the book in?

With this thought Harriet turned and went back into the room and approached Harry and the book again. She grabbed ink and a quill and a piece of parchment from her bag before sitting down cross legged next to Harry and the book.

"I think before we use the book we need to make some kind of rules on how we are going to use it." She looked at Harry and saw a surprised look on his face. It was evident that he had not thought of making rules for the books use. "What do you think?" she asked needing to know what Harry thought of the idea and hoping that she wasn't just being paranoid. Harry waited a few seconds before he replied.

"Yes I think that's a good idea, but we both have to agree on the rules." At Harriet's nod the both put their heads together and got to work.

It was a good half an hour later when they both sat back up and there sitting in front of them was a piece of parchment which had a neatly written list of rules on it.

We shall not use this book to invade people's privacy (unless we have good reason to believe that said person could be in danger if the information is not found out)

We will not tell anyone else about the book it will stay a secret between Harry James Potter and Harriet Lily Potter

The book will not be used to find out how to use dark magic or control any living being

The book must remain hidden from all other people in a very secure hiding place or be kept in the possession of either Harry Potter or Harriet potter at all times

Personal information can only be found out about dead people who either Harry Potter or Harriet potter have some sort of relation to.

The book will not be used in a malicious or nasty way at all it will purely be for general information that can do no harm to anybody unless in the case of ensuring justice.

Harriet looked over the list and felt they had covered everything. After all if they had mossed anything out they could always add it later.

With the rules set the twins turned to the book. The both silently agreed that the first thing they should find out about was the room they were in.

"Should we ask how long the room will be here and who will be able to see it first?" Asked Harriet. At Harry's nod of agreement Harriet leant over and wrote as neatly as she could on the left page of the book.

_How long will this experimental room be here in the form that it is in, and who can all see it? _

The twins waited a few moments before the text in Harriet's hand writing changed into typed text. The after a short pause. More text appeared this time on the right page.

This experimental room will be here unchanged for those who created it. Only the people present when the room was created will be able to see the room. The people who created the room will not be able to use the room in any other form other than that which they created unless they physically change the room on their own. The room will take another form for another person if they have need for a particular type of room. The room can take more than one form at the one time. Those people in the different forms of the room will not see each other.

Harriet couldn't hold in her smile and beamed at Harry. This will always be their room there was absolutely no risk at all that they will be discovered. The room won't change forms for them so it will always be their den that that can add things to without fear of it disappearing or being stolen. At that thought Harriet had another though she looked at harry and when he saw her thinking something through he just turned the page over to reveal the next pages of the book which were blank. Harriet didn't need any more prompting than that.

_Will anyone be able to access any object we have in this room, or will it be completely safe even if there is someone in the room whilst it is in another form?_

Whilst the writing changed to text Harriet looked up to Harry.

"That's a great question, and it makes sense, we could keep the book here if nobody can get any objects from this room in this form." Harriet nodded because that was exactly what she was thinking. The twins both looked back down onto the pages where the answer to Harriet's question now stood.

The room will be completely secure from anyone other than those present when the room was created. Any object in the room in any one form will not be able to be accessed by anyone in the room whilst the room is in any other form.

Harriet and Harry looked at each other, both having the largest grin possible on their faces. Now they knew that anything that they didn't want anybody else to find they could keep in this room and naturally they would be keeping the book in here. After all this was the most secure place ever that they knew off to keep the book of answers in without anyone else being able to find it and use it for bad or for finding out peoples personal secrets.

Harriet checked her watch and noticed that is was almost time for dinner, she told Harry this before carefully closing the book and going over to one of the larger alcoves and placing the book inside making this the first book of their personal collection. Harry came up behind Harriet and placed another book in their as well. Harriet only had to glance at the book once harry had taken his hand away to know what the book was. It was the book they had been using to put any information about their families in.

With a final look around their now perfect den Harriet and Harry left the den taking the step ladders with them and headed back up to the castle for dinner. The quickly had the ladders back into a broom cupboard and headed into the great hall where they separated Harry heading over to the Gryffindor table and Harriet to the Slytherin table where she took her seat next to Draco.

After dinner that night Harriet followed Draco back to the common room. They had some talking to do. Upon entering the common room they went and sat in a secluded corner and talked.

"Draco, did you get the letter I sent you?" At Draco's nod Harriet pressed on, "Did you understand everything that I wrote in it?"

"Yeah, and I understand why you were so angry with me. I'll not try to get Harry or any of his friends expelled again I promise, your friendship means a lot more to me than that, well it means more to me than anything really." Harriet nodded in understanding she couldn't agree fully with Draco's comment since she had harry as well as Hermione who she would think about on a par with Draco.

"And do you understand that at the weekends that's time I like to spend with my brother? It's just I've never had any sibling and then to find out I have a twin it kind of make feel protective of him and I want to spend quality time with him to get to know the real Harry Potter and not just the façade that he puts on when there are others around. I don't want to have the bog standard relationship with my brother I want to have a close relationship with him."

Draco nodded in truth he didn't really understand not having any sibling of his own to feel that way about. He did however know the feeling of wanting a brother or sister to grow up with and to know in a way that the people around them just wouldn't understand. So Draco wouldn't feel right if he was to take that chance away from Harriet.

Draco smiled at Harriet and they moved onto less serious topics for the rest of the evening, often drawing looks from some of the older student who had piles of homework to do as one of the first years would give a loud laugh or giggle every now and again that they wouldn't be able to stifle or hold in.


	29. do not give up please

I know it's annoying after all of this time to get a measly authors note, But I really wanted to reassure you… or perhaps it's annoy some of you, That I will be continuing with this story. I should have said something sooner and for that I am really sorry, but in all honesty I did not expect it to be so long that I went without updating. At the beginning I was getting accustomed to being so far away from home and the first couple of missed updates were due to me being homesick and not being in the mood to write, Then well I don't really have an excuse for the next month or 2 because I just got side-tracked with Pottermore and the amazing friends I have made through it. Then my laptop completely went haywire I couldn't use word or basically any programs until it wouldn't even turn on I had to send it away to get fixed multiple times until eventually through desperation and the mounting number of projects I had to do for my degree, I cleaned out my savings and bought a new laptop, then I was by catching up with projects at first, then after Easter I was working flat out on my honours project, and then up until last week I had exams and since these are my final exams I will ever have to do in education for the foreseeable future they were kind of important.

Any way Now all I have to do is one more project a scientific poster for my honours project, pack all my belongings that I have used for the past year, and move back to Scotland, and then I promise as soon as I have seen my family and pets again and unpacked the essentials I will re-read this story to refresh my memory and get back to writing again by this time next week I should have sent the next chapter to my beta's and will have it posted as soon as they have read it and given me feedback.

I apologise in advanced for any changes in writing style as since my last update I have done the final 2 university years within the one year of my course and I have grown as a person and learned more about myself and my capabilities, which may be unintentionally reflected in my writing. However I will try to keep this to a minimum.

Thank you for being so understanding and for bearing with me in this longer than I intended and for the most part pointless authors note. You have been really kind to me with even bothering to read my story and I only wish that you will not have all lost faith in me. Thank you and again and sorry for the long wait it will not be too much longer.


	30. Chapter 29

**A/N Ok I dedicate this chapter to lilmisadiva who gave me quite a few reviews which made me smile and helped me to get back into the spirit of writing. I know it has been a while I was busy with college and then when I tried to write this chapter it just felt so forced, I ended up stopping half way through it until I got those reviews then I thought people are still interested I can do this all I need to do is get past the storm of writing duds then it will be a smooth sailing ride after that so I apologise for the wait, and I apologise for the reduced quality but it this helps me get through that storm then hopefully the quality will increase for future chapters.**

**I do not own Harry Potter I just adore it and incorporate it into my life so fully that I sometimes believe the magical world is real. Now on with the story.**

**Also I would like to give a big thank you to my 2 beta's Courtney and Jess for jumping right back in to beta this story again even after so long.**

Chapter 29

With Harriet and Draco's friendship back on course and Harriet spending time with Harry in their Den every chance they got, they soon lost track of time. The weekend was almost there again before Harriet knew it. She was entering the great hall for breakfast on the Friday morning and was just taking her seat next to Draco when the morning post arrived. Harriet received a letter from her parents, and so didn't notice at first that everyone's attention had been drawn to one package in particular.

This package was long and thin and was being carried by 6 large screech owls. She only looked up when she heard Draco grumbling about Potter getting everything, Harriet figuring that Draco wasn't talking about her glanced over at her brother in time to see him with a stunned expression reading a letter and a long thin package sitting in front of him on the Gryffindor table.

"I wonder what he's got?" Harriet didn't even realise she had spoken aloud until she saw the look of disgust on Draco's face.

"Whatever it is I bet he's not allowed it." Stated Draco and got out of his seat and headed for the entrance hall doors as he saw Harry and Ron getting up to leave the great hall. Harriet sighed and thinking that nothing good could come of this she too got up from her seat and followed Draco Crabbe and Goyle.

Draco quickly motioned for Crabbe and Goyle to block of the stairs off, as he leaned on the banister, Harriet not wanting to intervene unless she had to stood off to the side, she knew that she would probably never get Draco and Harry to become friends so she only hoped that she would be able stop things if they started to get out of hand.

When Harry and Ron walked through the entrance hall they were half way towards the stairs before they even noticed the Slytherin boys blocking their route. Before the Gryffindor's could do anything Draco seized the package and felt it.

"That's a broomstick," stated Draco. Harriet stifled her gasp of happiness for her brother because of the look of sheer jealousy on Draco's face. Harriet knew that Draco had never had reason to be jealous of anyone before he was used to making others jealous, and she knew that he probably wouldn't respond well to the unfamiliar emotion. "You'll be for it this time, Potter, first years aren't allowed them." Harriet gave a small sigh; she could see Ron practically bursting with excitement and was not surprised when he started gloating on Harry's behalf.

"It's not any old broomstick; it's a Nimbus Two Thousand. What did you say you've got at home, Malfoy, a Comet Two Sixty?" Ron gave a big grin to Harry as if it was him who had the new broom and not Harry, before he continued to mock Draco by giving Harry an explanation on the differences of the brooms. "Comets look flashy, but they're not in the same league as the Nimbus." Harriet could see Draco getting more and more annoyed.

"What would you know about it, Weasley, you couldn't afford half the handle." Snapped Draco Harriet was going to have to step in if this carried on for much longer. "I suppose you and your brothers have to save up, twig by twig."

Harriet however was saved from having to intervene by the appearance of Professor Flitwick who had joined the group unnoticed and was standing at Draco's elbow.

"Not arguing, I hope, boys?" he squeaked. Draco saw this as his chance to get Harry kicked out of Hogwarts or at least get him a detention momentarily forgetting Harriet still not realising that she had followed the boys out of the great hall.

"Potter's been sent a broomstick, Professor," Draco quickly said. Harriet upon hearing this felt her anger rising at Draco one week and he had broken his promise. She stormed over to the group and stood next to her twin with her arms folded glaring at Draco. Draco realising that he had been caught red handed look down in embarrassment instantly regretting telling the professor, he was still trying to make it up to Harriet from last time, he suddenly felt sure that this time it would be harder to get her accept his apology, but he was willing to do almost anything. He couldn't lose Harriet as a friend. She was his best friend.

"Yes, yes, that's right." Said Professor Flitwick, beaming at Harry. "Professor McGonagall told me all about the special circumstances, Potter. And what model is it?" Harriet had to try not to laugh at the look on Draco's face.

"A Nimbus Two Thousand, sir," said Harry and when Harriet turned to him she saw that he too was fighting a laugh at Draco's look of Horror. "And it's really thanks to Malfoy here that I've got it," added Harry. At this statement Harriet gave Harry a warning glance. Harry and Ron however were already heading upstairs, smothering their laughter at Draco's outrage and confusion.

"You really shouldn't have tried to start trouble with all of that Draco." Stated Harriet turning to her friend. "You have no need to explain yourself I saw it all." With that Harriet turned lifting her bag more firmly onto her shoulder and turned to leave.

"Wait!" shouted Draco running after her. "Harriet please I'm sorry I shouldn't have done that I just didn't think." Harriet stopped and spun around to face Draco straight in the eye.

"That's your problem Draco. You never think. You need to stop thinking that the world revolves around you and that you have to have everything better than everyone else. Let someone else have a little happiness in their lives for a change." Harriet started to turn around again but Draco grabbed her arm to stop her.

"I don't want to be the only one with happiness Harriet, it's just I don't understand why Potter has to be the teachers favourite and given gifts by the teachers when he is probably treated like such a prince at home." Harriet looked at Draco with pity, which it was clear from Draco's expression he was confused and a little offended about.

"Draco you don't even realise that you're the one treated like a prince at home do you? You have no idea how Harry is treated at home and that's the way he likes it. All I'm going to say is don't judge what everyone's home lives are like before you even know them." Harriet gave Draco one last glance shook off his arm before heading down to the dungeons. "Are you coming to class or what?"

Draco gave himself a shake then hurried after Harriet with Crabbe and Goyle silently following after the pair.

After potions Harriet managed to catch up with Harry and Ron as they headed to lunch.

"So spill," she demanded of them without even saying hi.

Harry slightly surprised by his sisters sudden appearance turned to her then gave her a big grin before handing her the note he had received with him broom that morning.

_DO NOT OPEN THE PARCEL AT THE TABLE._

_It contains your new Nimbus Two Thousand,_

_But I don't want everybody knowing you've_

_Got a broomstick or they'll all want one._

_Oliver Wood will meet you tonight on the _

_Quidditch pitch at seven o'clock for your_

_First training session._

_Professor M. McGonagall _

Harriet couldn't help the smile on her face as she handed the note back to her brother.

"That's great news Harry you will need to tell me how it all goes. My brother is going to be the most famous Quidditch player of all time just you wait and see." At that Ron gave a snort, and Harriet rounded on him. "What?" she demanded fiercely.

"Well he's already one of the most famous people of all time, that has got to make him already one of the most famous Quidditch players of all time." Harriet bristled at Ron's smart aleck tone.

"Oh really? Has he ever played a game of Quidditch yet? He only just got his own broom. And besides I was talking about an earned fame. Something Harry himself can have control over not something that he is famous for that he has to learn about from other people. That's not real fame."

By this point they had reached the great hall and Harriet had to leave the boys so she gave Harry a quick hug and hurried over to the Slytherin table to get something to eat.

"What was that all about?" asked Draco as he moved up the bench to make space for Harriet.

"What was what all about?" asked Harriet back pretending to be oblivious.

"You know that whole thing with Harry." Harriet could sense Draco's rising impatience at not getting a straight answer.

"I was just having a chat with him that's all and then said bye to him so I could come here and eat lunch before herbology, of course I didn't expect the whole 20 questions." At that Harriet spooned some Macaroni onto a plate and poured herself some pumpkin juice.

6 o'clock found Harriet waiting for Harry in the main entrance. She knew that she was really early but she didn't want to miss her brother and with it her chance to wish him luck before his first Quidditch practice. Though as time went on she began wishing that she had thought to bring a book with her to read whilst waiting on Harry to arrive. She ended up occupying herself by imagining what Harry's first practice will be like and wishing that she could be there to see it. Of course she would never be brave enough to go to a Gryffindor practice for fear of the Gryffindor Quidditch team thinking that she was spying on behalf of Slytherin.

It wasn't until a quarter to seven that Harriet spotted some familiar messy black hair coming down the main staircase with his new broom in hand. Harriet straightened up and as Harry drew nearer and spotted her he flashed her a big grin and Harriet grinned back and approached him.

"What are you doing here?" Harry was surprised but seemed happy about her presence.

"I came to wish you luck," Laughed Harriet "and to walk you down towards the Quidditch pitch, don't worry I won't stay I just wanted to walk you down then I'll go straight back to my common room promise." Reassured Harriet upon seeing a hint of worry on Harries face despite him trying not to show it.

Harry seemed to relax and accept her assurances and he linked arms with her and they both walked down towards the pitch together.

The whole way down to the pitch Harriet and Harry both talked nonstop about Quidditch. None of them having so much as heard the word Quidditch before coming to Hogwarts the discussion wasn't a very technical one they mainly talked about the basic positions and relaying what they had learned of the sport and contemplating what a real game of Quidditch would be like. Once they arrived within the shadows of the Quidditch stands Harriet gave Harry a hug wished him all the luck and walked back up towards the school.


End file.
